› added 5 years ago

97

TIL since 1991 Russia has been involved in 12 wars

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Z8OjY TIL that Napoleon was of average height for his era and that his reputation as a short man was largely spread through the works of British satirical cartoonist James Gillray. His satire was so effective that Napoleon once said that Gillray "did more than all the armies of Europe to bring me down."
YdQr TIL of an evolutionary rock-paper-scissors mechanism. Three variants of the Common Side-Blotched Lizard compete for mates; Orange males are adapted to steal mates from Blue males, who are adapted to steal mates from Yellow males, who in turn are adapted to steal mates from Orange males.
ne9KY TIL the Japanese work philosophy of “kaizen”, where people constantly seek to find ways to improve methods instead of just doing it the same way
rKEW TIL The death of the pope used to be confirmed by hitting him in the head with a silver hammer.
0wVBN TIL: even though humans have been getting taller for the past several thousand years, we're still not as tall as we used to be pre-civilization