› added 3 years ago

114

TIL about Cryptophasia, or 'twin speak'. Up to 50% of twins will create their own language, which only they can understand, including made-up words and a rudimentary grammar system.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

ayeo TIL of Captain Mbaye Diagne, a Senegalese unarmed military observer with the UN during the Rwandan Genocide. Alone and against orders, he used his UN vehicle to ferry hundreds of Tutsis and moderate Hutus to safety, bluffing, bribing and begging his way through checkpoints manned by génocidaires.
wvKo TIL of the US Supreme Court decision Buck v. Bell where the Court approved the practice of forced sterilization of citizens the state deemed unfit, including the intellectually disabled, in order to to improve the human race by eliminating “defectives” from the gene pool.
Z8QBv TIL about Mariano Martinez. A man who in 1971 modified an ice cream machine to create the first frozen margarita machine. He did this to meet demand for a popular margarita recipe he was serving at the time. You can find his invention on display at the Smithsonian Museum for American history.
VMbG0 TIL that with only 324 households declaring ownership of a swimming pool on their tax form and fearing tax evasion, Greek authorities turned to satellite imagery for further investigation of Athens' northern suburbs. They discovered a total of 16,974 swimming pools.
wewP TIL that if you roll your mouse over the pronunciation text in wikipedia, it tells you in plain english how to pronounce the word (Try it here over ɒziˈmændiəs)