› added 9 years ago

247

TIL that a Swedish couple tried to name their child “Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116″ (pronounced Albin)

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

LkMZm TIL of Dunbar's number, proposed by anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who found a correlation between primate brain size and avg. social group size. By using the avg. human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed humans can comfortably maintain only 150 stable relationships
OoLm4 TIL in 1945 the worst maritime disaster ever happened when the MV Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by Soviet torpedos. The ship was attempting to cross the Baltic sea to evacuate fleeing Germans. While the total death count is not known, it is estimated at nearly 9,000
Ooera TIL that the RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic, rammed a U-Boat and sunk it, making it the only merchant ship in World War I to have sunk an enemy vessel.
W7evY TIL that, when considering the area of land only and excluding areas of water, Brazil is actually larger than the contiguous USA by a decent margin, and China is substantially larger than both by the same metric.
9wVJ6 TIL that winning important international football games reduces civil conflict in Africa. When national teams win high-stakes matches, people are less likely to identify with their ethnic group over the nation. Teams qualifying for AFCON experience significantly less conflict in the following months