› added 4 years ago

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TIL that, in 2014, scientists found a giant 30,000 year old virus in Siberian permafrost. The virus, Pithovirus sibericum, was still infectious and began killing amoebas. This raised concerns that melting or drilling arctic ice could unearth previously undiscovered pathogenic viruses.

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b9yeN TIL Hubei has the largest primary forests remaining in Central China and provides habitat for many rare animal species, such as the Chinese Giant Salamander, the Golden or Sichuan Snub-nosed Monkey, and the Asian Black Bear. From 1884 to 1889 more than 500 new species were recorded from the area
J1rAQ TIL that Wilhelm Furtwängler, a leading German conductor, called Hitler a "hissing street pedlar" and an "enemy of the human race". He also refused to give the Nazi salute, wrote public letters denouncing antisemitism, and once got into a shouting match with Hitler over Nazi cultural policy.
pYYN4 TIL France, saw its own constitutional crisis in 1958, when an attempted military coup was diverted only when the wartime leader Charles de Gaulle handed himself emergency powers to establish a unity government that satisfied both civilian and military leaders.
BrWwK TIL The Toba Super-eruption was a supervolcanic eruption that occurred 75,000 years ago. It has been suggested this caused a volcanic winter lasting 6-10 years. The genetic bottleneck theory says the world population declined to 1,000-10,000 breeding pairs which we are all descended from.
QJm0k TIL that there is a song that sounds like it is sung by an American in English, but in fact is only gibberish sung by an Italian imitating the accent. It was written to demonstrate how a lot of Italian people loved English songs but understood only very little.