› added 8 years ago

128

TIL the easiest languages to learn for English speakers are Afrikaans, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese & Romanian. This is based on the amount of time it takes for the US Foreign Service to train their diplomats before entering service abroad.

Read more effectivelanguagelearning.com

via ift.tt

p8NmZ TIL that while everyone thought of Issac Newton as a man of physics and calculus, his real passion was alchemy and spent most of his time attempting to make a philosopher’s stone – a rock that could transform any metal into gold and make people immortal.
nVEo TIL that the Soviet scientists who developed the H-bomb were just as afraid of letting their military control the technology as the scientists under Oppenheimer
woNoY TIL about ''execution of nine relations'' from china in which a criminal's spouse, kids, grandkids, parents, grandparents ,cousins, aunts and uncles, inlaws would all be killed. Usually only used in cases of treason though sometimes this was used for crimes as mundane as libel.
Ooa5a TIL that Chinese-run factories in Prato, Italy, the majority of which underpay workers and force them to work in horrific conditions, allow designers to put 'Made in Italy' on their labels, and charge a premium because consumers think they are buying ethically produced goods.
One6 TIL that the first person to discover a full dinosaur skeleton was crushed and nearly killed by a landslide. She was also banned from The Geological Society Of London for being a working class woman.