› added 3 years ago

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TIL Scientists tracking the migration of swifts discovered they can stay airborne for 10 months straight without ever landing. Of those birds that did land, they still spent 99.5% of their ten months in the air.

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5Y96R TIL: That 'Aryan' and 'Iran' and 'Iranian' all come from the same word, and some of the 'purest' of Aryans are Kashmiri, Romani Gypsies and Punjabi.
gMW5X TIL of the "World's Littlest Skyscraper" scam committed on Wichita Falls, Texas. The designer said the building would be 480 in height. Investors assumed it was 480 feet not 480 inches and soon realized they invested $200,000 in a 4 storey building. They lost in court and the builder kept the money.
MBR7 TIL a 12-year-old Ethiopian girl was snatched by four men on her way home from school. A week later, three lions encountered the group and chased the men off. The lions stayed with the girl without harming her, before departing as police searching for her came near.
xVmoB TIL divorce rates increase during times of hardship, war, and major events. Rates increased after World War II because people were quick to marry each other before they went to war. When soldiers returned, they found out that they didn't have much in common with their spouses, so they divorced.
VM6D8 TIL that between 1921 - 1976, Sweden sterilized up to 63,000 people. Teenagers as young as 15 were sterilized for inadequacies as trivial as shortsightedness or because they allegedly lacked judgment or had "no obvious concept of ethics".