› added 10 years ago

141

TIL American slaves in 1850 were sold for around $40,000 (in contemporary money); a slave nowadays can be bought for just $90, making “replacement” more economical than providing long term care.

Read more freetheslaves.net

via reddit.com

rlre TIL that one theory on why we are ticklish is that it serves as a mechanism for developing combat skills. Most often practiced from parent to child, tickling activates vulnerable areas on the body that develop a defensive reaction while producing laughter that encourages the ‘attacker’ to continue.
8JYZ TIL multitasking is a myth. What we call multitasking is actually ‘switch-tasking.’ There is actually a stop/start process that occurs in the brain when we switch between tasks. This process causes “more mistakes, and over time it can be energy sapping.”
VMQ9D TIL Archaeologists found 2,800 year old ceramic sippy cups with cute animal motifs, containing traces of livestock milk, which suggests infants back then were drinking it. The dates correspond to a baby boom at that time, suggesting that sippy cups were an important innovation for humanity.
7rDKO TIL Mutton busting is an event held at rodeos similar to bull riding or bronc riding, in which children ride or race sheep.
8r6b TIL of a chemical so malodorous that opening a container of it can cause people hundreds of yards away to notice within seconds. A soapmaker reported that diluting it seemed to make the smell worse, calling it “fearful”.