› added 6 years ago

101

TIL free-ranging cats kill billions of birds annually in the US. They are the the #1 anthropogenic cause of death for birds

Read more annualreviews.org

via reddit.com

X6wj TIL: The term “Bistro” means “quickly” in Russian, and was introduced to the French in Paris during the Russian occupation of France following the Napoleonic Wars, as Russian soldiers overran Parisian restaurants
VMmW0 TIL that the beloved British dish of fish&chips was the result of Portugeuse Jews fleeing the Inquisition and bringing their fried fish dish and potatoes losing their bad reputation as gross and poisonous, becoming a European staple.
mX6P TIL that in 1992, you couldn’t be a police officer in Texas if you had “sexual contact with a member of the same sex since age 15,” or any sexual contact with “an animal or fowl since age 17.”
X0mLj TIL the highest paid agate ever, sold for $13,500 [warning paywall]
W48A TIL it is possible to extinguish all the mosquitoes. Scientists recently reported a system that allows them to push the “Nix” gene to such a system it would essentially create a chain reaction spreading the male gene, producing males until eventually the population crashes.