› added 4 years ago

65

TIL that Human civilization has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants.

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Epwp TIL there is a common urban legend that there was no looting after the devastating 2011 earthquake in northern Japan. In fact, numerous ATMs were stripped and looted in the weeks following the earthquake.
ZpgNR TIL that the Roman emperor Vespasian did not in fact issue a tax on urinating in public latrines but instead on the distribution of urine collected from Rome's public urinals
rNna0 TIL the interesting number paradox, which suggests that if we classify natural numbers as "interesting" or "uninteresting," a contradiction arises: the smallest uninteresting number becomes interesting simply by being the smallest in its set. This implies that every natural number is interesting.
pY8xA TIL of the "preparedness paradox" where if a disaster is avoided through planning and vigilance, people will doubt that the preparation was necessary
gr5n7 TIL Leonard Nimoy refused to join Star Trek the Animated Series without George Takai and Nichelle Nichols claiming they were proof of ethic diversity in the 23rd century.