› added 10 years ago

81

TIL that the Stasi(East German Secret Police) used a psychological technique called Zersetzung, which involved things like breaking into a targets house and rearranging things, calling in the middle of the night, and sending dildos.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

O8Va TIL when the French king Jean II was prisoner of the English, he was allowed to return to France to raise money for his ransom, leaving his son as a replacement hostage. When his son escaped, he voluntarily returned to England, citing reasons of “good faith and honor”.
YZWA TIL of African spiny mice that can shed up to 60% of the skin on their backs to escape predators. They then regrow hair follicles, skin, sweat glands and fur instead of scar tissue. And it is speculated that we could switch this mechanism on in humans.
Ol8R TIL that at the 2012 International Shooting Grand Prix gold medalist Maria Dmitrienko of Kazakhstan had to listen to the entire parody of O’ Kazakhstan from Borat. The incident resulted from the wrong song being downloaded from YouTube at the last minute. Senior officials of Kazakhstan were furious
KBa TIL that on 9/12/2001, in a sign of support for the US, Queen Elizabeth directed that the Star Spangled Banner be played instead of what is typically played, breaking a centuries-old tradition for the first time.
N7xeE TIL How much a billion dollars really is. If you were paid 1 dollar a second for 12 days, you would be millionaire. To become a billionaire from this method, it would take over 31 years. So, these two terms should not be seen as interchangeable, as many people would lead you to believe.