Post * rRDWW — Curious Curator

› added 4 years ago

152

TIL an attempt to fish deep sea "Twilight Zone" species (which number in the quadrillions) resulted in a fishery burning down because the Lanternfish spontaneously combust at surface temperatures.

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p864N TIL that people didn’t use to sleep for a straight 8 hours. Before electric lights and street lamps, people would sleep from ~8 to midnight, wake up, and then sleep from ~2 to sunrise. They’d use their couple of midnight hours to pray, read, or have sex

l7j4K TIL With a population of approximately 9.8 mil, L.A. County has a larger pop. than 40 of the 50 U.S. states and the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, D.C., Alaska, North and South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, and Maine combined.

ne9yP TIL about the origins of US whistleblower protections. In 1777, 10 soldiers reported their commanding officers for torture. Instead of branding the soldiers as traitors, the Founding Fathers passed a law protecting them and future whistleblowers.

7rMoM TIL the influenza epidemic of 1918 was called the “Spanish Flu” because Spain was neutral during World War I and was the only country with a free press able to report on the disease. People just assumed the flu, which killed more people than WWI, began in Spain, but it’s unknown where it started.

J1JKQ TIL that at the time of the French Revolution the majority of people in France did not speak French. It is estimated that at the time of the French Revolution in 1789, only half of the population of France could speak French, and as late as 1871 only a quarter spoke French as their native language.