› added 10 years ago

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TIL Brazilian prisons offer to reduce the sentences of their prisoners by 4 days (up to 48 days/year) for every book they read and write a report on.

Read more theglobeandmail.com

via reddit.com

R59Vw TIL that deaths related to heart attacks and heart disease are statistically more common on Christmas and New Year's days.
p8g9Q TIL that the town of Palisade, Nevada staged gunfights, bank robberies, and Native American raids during the 1870's to attract tourists as the Transcontinental Railroad was built. The truth was known only by the town, and in reality, the town did not even have a sheriff due to its low crime rate.
jNg0R TIL in 1972 Tonie Nathan was the first woman to receive an electoral vote in a US presidential election.
Br55W TIL when Sophie Rutschmann of the University of Strasbourg discovered a mutated gene that causes an adult fruit fly to die within two days after it is infected with certain bacteria, she named the gene "Kenny" in honor of the South Park character, who dies in almost every early episode.
M7YaK TIL that a high school in Pennsylvania issued an Apple MacBook to each of its 2,306 students, then remotely activated the webcams to spy on the students at home.