› added 1 month ago

8

TIL in 1992 the KGB's official archivist defected with 25,000 pages of handwritten notes on KGB operations over 50 years

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

8aG4P TIL that lyme disease was not as common in the past as it is now, and its prevalence is actually due to an explosion in the white-footed mouse population at the turn of the 20th century. This in turn coincides with the extinction of the mouse's primary ecological competitor: the passenger pigeon.
wg8o TIL the Rosetta Stone was a tax document outlining the tax exempt status of a temple.
0drnN TIL that every year, Western Europeans alone collectively lose about 1.6 million years of healthy life because of traffic noise.
VQxp TIL that in order to preserve the state’s natural beauty, billboards are completely banned in the state of Vermont and have been for over 45 years.
6mwJ TIL a researcher in the 1970s blindfolded participants and told them they were going to play tug-of-war against another team. When they were told they had 3 others pulling with them, they pulled 18% less strenuously than when they were told they were alone. The effect is now known as social loafing.