› added 5 years ago

719

TIL locusts are not a species. They are actually grasshoppers which have developed gregarious characteristics in suitable environmental conditions forming an organized group

B9PD TIL In 1945, after Japan had conceded defeat in World War II, Sony founder Masaru Ibuka invented a product to try and serve the millions of homes who had electricity but lacked the appliances to use it. The result was an electric rice cooker.
oBwY TIL that during Argentina’s dictatorship, opponents to the regime were drugged, flown out over the Atlantic, and pushed out of planes alive with weights attached to their feet so no bodies would be found as evidence.
xV8p5 TIL of Lisztomania, the obsessive fan hysteria surrounding the classical composer Franz Liszt. Admirers would fight over his locks of his hair, pull his carriage like horses, and carry glass vials of his old cigars and coffee dregs.
lo751 TIL After the Siege of Leningrad was broken, the Soviets wanted to prosecute those who had resorted to cannibalism. However, so many were accused (over two thousand) that the NKVD had to divide them into two groups; 'corpse-eating' and 'person-eating'. The former were jailed, that later were shot
QJR5E TIL of an organization in Belgium training giant rats (nicknamed "HeroRATs") to sniff out landmines in countries where explosive remnants of war pose a large threat to communities. The rats are extremely effective, outperforming both metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs.