› added 3 months ago

10

TIL that it is possible for additional roadways to create more traffic rather than alleviate it, known as Braess' Paradox

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XROr TIL that when a missionary told the Amazonian Piraha tribe the story of his aunt’s suicide, they laughed. No one in their tribe had ever committed suicide and they had no concept of it, so they thought it was a joke.
8GmL TIL In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson said to the Greek ambassador “Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephant’s trunk, whacked good.”
kOPw1 TIL the children's book 'Love You Forever' simple four-lined verse was a poem the author would sing silently to himself after his wife gave birth to two stillborn babies.
j6g9j TIL to move partially completed airplane fuselages, Airbus uses a custom-built giant plane called the Beluga Super Transporter
loGj7 TIL Peter Sellers' estranged wife inherited his fortune upon his death, his children got only 800 Pounds each. She refused to increase the amount even after a mutual acquaintance intervened. Incidentally, Sellers' son died 26 years to the day after his father, from the same cause (heart attack).