› added 8 years ago

96

TIL that the rate of world population growth is now decreasing.

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rNolo TIL George Washington’s willingness to resign his power for the good of the republic earned him the title of “American Cincinnatus,” after the Fifth Century Roman who led the army to victory and then resigned his commission and retired to his farm, refusing rewards for his service.
69OAY Today I learned that basketballs used to always be brown, but in the 1950s an orange basketball was invented so it would be easier to see against the floor of the court. This is now the standard colour for basketballs.
7NyO TIL there is a boulder in the woods of Germany that contains a wifi router full of PDF survival guides that can only be accessed if you build a fire next to it.
rR6M TIL that Judit Polgar, a female chess player who defeated Kasparov, Karpov, and Spassky, was part of an experiment by her father to prove (chess) genius is made, not born.
9wwx6 TIL on June 5th 1995 a male mallard collided with a new glass wall at the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, died, then was immediately copulated by another male mallard for 75 minutes. It became know as “the first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard,” and spring-boarded Dead Duck Day.