› added 7 years ago

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TIL there was an 18th-century racehorse named Potoooooooo. His name was originally Potatoes, but when his owner told the stable boy to write his name on a feed bin, he misheard it as “pot-eight-o’s”. The owner found it so funny that he kept it as the horse’s name.

pYeMO TIL Matthew Hopkins was Witch Finder General of England who hanged more "witches" than any other witch hunter.
R5ZOj TIL a 1979 study from Kays Kaidbey and his colleagues found that on average 55% of ultraviolet A rays penetrate Caucasian skin while fewer than 18% get through African-American skin. This is why photoageing is delayed in people with dark skin...
kOr6d TIL: In the United States the reason voting takes place on a Tuesday is in 1845 it could take rural farmers up to a day of travelling by horse and cart to get to a voting station. Wednesday was typically market day and Sunday was the Biblical Sabbath so Tuesday was chosen to allow ample travel time.
BgONx TIL of the juiced ball theory, which suggests that the baseballs used in the MLB have been altered by the league to increase scoring. The theory came about in the late 90s and early 2000s, but the theory receded and has now been attributed to steroid use in the league at that time
k8r7 TIL the short poem of “Three blind mice, see how they run” is just a small bit of a longer poem storying the lives of 3 mice who go on an adventure, become homeless, starving, get blinded, go crazy, get their tails chopped off and eventually live happily ever after.