› added 12 years ago

94

TIL that George W Bush’s AIDS prevention response in Southern Africa was actually a FAILURE, and the rate of new infections grew as a result of it.

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698xm TIL acacia trees are flat-topped so that their lowest leaves are at the height of the tallest herbivores. They're also covered in thorns, have organs for housing/feeding vicious ants, release inedible compounds into their leaves when eaten, and use ethylene gas to warn nearby trees of danger
rRx84 TIL UK's national anthem changes from"God save the Queen" to "God save the King" depending on the gender of the reigning monarch
xVkmk TIL the story of FedEx's founder, Frederick Smith, submitting his business plan as a term paper and receiving a failing grade with an admonition that it would never work, is a myth. He dimly remembers he got about a C, mostly because "it wasn't a well-thought-out paper."
WWAB TIL Terry Gilliam’s ‘Trilogy of Imagination,’ (Time Bandits, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) are about the “craziness of our awkwardly ordered society and the desire to escape it through whatever means possible” shown through the eyes of a child, a man in his 30’s and an elderly man.
PedO TIL on June 20, 1942 four prisoners, in stolen SS uniforms, escaped from the Auschwitz by driving out the exit gate. Upon arriving at the armed gate, one of the prisoners yelled from the stolen car “Wake up you damn buggers! Open up or I’ll open you up” The guard immediately raise the barrier