› added 10 years ago

128

TIL That CAPTCHA is short for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

awPaZ TIL that while women weren't allowed to participate in the ancient Olympic Games, they actually had their own event called the Heraia which consisted of the same elements the Olympic Games started out with; a foot race and religious festivities
Wk4no TIL that during WW2 in US occupied Aachen, an OSS agent assessed that the US installed mayor was planning to form a dictatorship. The agent leaked the information to the press and the mayor, whose identity was secret, was killed by an SS commando team which parachuted from a captured American B-17.
Brkwr TIL In 2016, the USFDA banned anti-bacterial soaps because they are not better, cleaner or safer than regular soap.
jEev TIL that in an effort to reduce widespread tax evasion, the Chinese government incorporated a scratch-off lottery into the state-run receipt system, encouraging consumers to demand a receipt and thus preventing businesses from under-reporting income. It was successful.
pMLZ TIL that in Gilbertese, the official language of the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, the word for dog (kamea) comes from the sound that the natives heard Europeans calling out to dogs (come here).