› added 10 years ago

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TIL a person named Edmund Plowden was famous in the 1500s for exposing unethical surveillance by disguised informants

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MewVb TIL about the idea of the Good Country Index: to measure what each country on earth contributes to the common good of humanity, and what it takes away, relative to its size. Using a wide range of data from the U.N. and other international organizations. This has been active since 2014
MeZpm TIL that the popular children's song "Do Your Ears Hang Low" stemmed from a song sung by soldiers marching in the American Revolutionary War. In their version, however, the listener is hit with intrusive questions regarding their ball sack. NSFW lyrics in link
vN18 TIL that bees control the thickness and clarity of their honey by fanning their wings at ventilation points within the hive at varying rates to control evaporation of water.
9YOym TIL that the term “mental retardation” which we now deem “inappropriate”, was a medical term for people with intellectual impairments, invented to replace terms that were more offensive. The American Association on Mental Retardation introduced it to be a neutral term in 1961.
R77j8 "About 90 percent of everything we buy will travel on ships"