› added 1 year ago

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TIL: Only 1,280 breeding humans once roamed Earth, gene study shows

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via reddit.com

0V7M TIL that the heated water in the barrel of the Vickers machine gun was sometimes used to make tea for British soldiers during World War I.
Evb7 TIL by 1580, a syphilis outbreak in Europe left most people bald. A surge of wigmaking sparked the trend of powdered wigs which lasted for almost 200 years.
kJGYm TIL there is still no scientific consensus for why "the dress" appears as either white-and-gold or black-and-blue
lWoG TIL that the hoatzin is the last surviving species of a line of birds that diverged from all other birds 64 million years ago, just after the dinosaur extinction event, and that hoatzin chicks have claws on their wings
g6M8 TIL When Fidel Castro seized power of Cuba He banned the board game ‘Monopoly’ and ordered every set to be destroyed because He perceived it as the pure embodiment of capitalism