› added 9 years ago

260

TIL: A british university actually funded a study that tested the theory that given a typewriter and enough time, a group of monkeys would recreate Shakespeare. The monkeys repeatedly deficated/urinated on the typewriter and were unsuccesful in typing more than one letter.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

XrKQ TIL: Until 2009, India accounted for more than half of the world’s polio cases. It has now had three consecutive years without new polio cases.
O5k1 TIL that almonds aren’t nuts, they are the pits of a fruit closely related to peaches
wLy7Y TIL The German word "Hamsterkäufe" is a behaviour, where people accumulate food and supplies to prepare for shortages, thus often creating the shortages in the first place.
b6DY0 TIL there have been MANY cases of "elephant lynching", or the killing of an elephants for spectacle with pseudo-legal or performative aspects, in the United States
57V8 TIL swearing can increase pain tolerance and reduce the fear of being in pain.