› added 12 years ago

86

TIL that, according to the Solomon Curve, drivers traveling 5 mph (8 km/h) above the average speed of traffic are statistically the least likely to be involved in a crash while crash risk increases dramatically when traveling below the average speed.

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78PD7 TIL that Francis Crozier of the Franklin Expedition fame was among the first people to meet with the survivors of the HMS Bounty mutiny when the British first arrived at the island in 1814.
0d1GR TIL that "DB Cooper" was not the actual alias used by the infamous hijacker. It was the one that was mistakingly reported in the press and quickly spread.
16WJX TIL people older than 75 years who have cognitive abilities as good as someone in their 20s and 30s are called superagers. A lot of their superaging comes from life-long exercise, connection with nature, and life-long mental activities. Robert De Niro, Rusin Bond, and Dadi Bhagwani have superaged.
QdZM TIL that in China in 757 during the siege of Suiyang, while they were short of food, the general Zhang Xun ordered his soldiers to kill the civilians in order to feed themselves. At the end of the siege ten months later, 20,000 to 30,000 people were eaten and only 400 were left.
KOyQ6 TIL about a British man who bought a ceramic pot at a junk sale for less than £4 and used it as a toothbrush holder until learning it was actually made in the Indus Valley of present-day Afghanistan about 4,000 years ago. It's thought the pot was originally brought to the UK by British tourists.