› added 4 years ago

171

TIL there was so much fruitless speculation about the origin of language that scholars now refer to silly theories by nicknames: the bow-wow, pooh-pooh, ding-dong, yo-he-ho, ta-ta and la-la theories.

Read more mentalfloss.com

via reddit.com

w8XE TIL that many countries and at least 9 U.S. states chemically castrate sex offenders.
W7xd4 TIL Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian pastor who believed in the power of teaching through example which he felt would be just as powerful as preaching.
vWkr TIL the average inmate at Alcatraz read 75-100 books per year.
gr9DX TIL of the Persian campaign in WWI, where (despite its neutrality) Iran suffered 2,000,000 deaths- fourth most of all countries and first in terms of percentage of population.
ndRd TIL of Diana Kim, a photographer from Hawaii, who, after 10 years of documenting the homeless, found her own father among them.