› added 5 years ago

232

TIL that in 2015, Christopher Ingraham of Washington Post wrote an article about Red Lake County in Minnesota being "the absolute worst place to live in America." The unhappy county residents invited the reporter to come visit. He liked it so much, less than 1 year later he moved his family there.

Read more mprnews.org

via reddit.com

PYJWw TIL the British were the first nation to employ the use of Agent Orange as part of a starvation campaign during the Malayan Emergency in the early 1950’s. The US would adopt this strategy in 1961 in Vietnam.
mxXGv TIL Pill Bugs are not insects but land crustaceans related to lobsters and shrimp. They breathe through gills, can drink through their anus, and excrete gas through their exoskeleton instead of urinating.
kLK5 TIL there is an island in Norway that lies at 68° north - well within the Arctic circle - that has an extreme temperature anomaly. Summers are warm and winter temperatures rarely pass below the freezing point.
wooVJ TIL that a fire destroyed most of Harvard Library’s collection in 1764. Only a small number of books were spared, including 144 that were checked out at the time. One of these books was found and returned in 1997.
x6jNB TIL there are five mass extinctions that each destroying 75-95% of all species. Currently we are on the sixth, because of human activities.