Malaria kills 600,000 people in Africa each year.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne illness that affects billions of people in warmer climates. This infectious disease spread by a single mosquito bite causes people to become very sick with high fever and flu-like symptoms that — if left untreated — can eventually lead to death. 

Sub-Saharan Africa’s high temperatures and rainy season put people at risk for malaria year-round. Almost 90 percent of the world’s malaria deaths each year happen there. In fact, of the 30 of the 35 countries that account for the vast majority of malaria deaths are in Africa. 

Medical treatment for malaria is expensive. Many African countries do not have the resources to help those infected. A bed net is a simple solution to protect people as they sleep at night, when mosquitoes spread the disease. 

The United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign works with partners on the ground in Africa to send bed nets and save lives. What can you do to help? Send a net and spread the buzz! Visit www.NothingButNets.net

Sources  CDC and Nothing But Nets   

Despite being praised as a model for direct democracy, universal women's suffrage did not exist in Switzerland until 1990.

Switzerland is often referenced as a prime example of working direct democracy, a form of government that allows direct citizen involvement in overturning legislation. Despite this appearance, not all women could vote in Switzerland until 1990.

Switzerland is divided into twenty-six cantons, administrative divisions similar to states or provinces. In the middle of the 20th century, the women's suffrage movement began to gain momentum, and the cantons of Switzerland gradually began to recognize female voting.

Appenzell Innerrhoden, the smallest populated canton, was the last of them to allow to women to vote. The federal court made this decision on November 27th, 1990. It's pretty strange that until twenty-two years ago, such a praised example of direct democracy was missing something we see as very important now. Wouldn't it be weird if you couldn't vote?

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There was a man named 'Captain Boycott' that was ostracized by his community.

The man was Charles Cunningham Boycott, a retired captain from the British army that worked as a land agent for a man named Lord Erne. In 1880, the community he oversaw had a campaign called the Three Fs, which called for Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure and Free Sale of land. 

The community began a campaign of isolation against Boycott in the local community. This included not allowing him in stores, refusing his laundry service, and even threatening the kid who delivered his mail.

The campaign against him became a well-covered cause in the British press. They supported Boycott and saw it as a victimization of a servant by Irish nationalists. The people behind the campaign had trouble deciding what to call what they were doing to him, in order to explain it to less educated people.

The correct term was that he was being 'socially excommunicated,' 'ostracized,' but people felt that term was too complicated to explain to uneducated people. So instead, they turned his name into a verb! Captain Boycott. Sounds almost like a meme doesn't it? 

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‘Ye’ should be pronounced like ‘the’. Why?

Writing something like 'ye olde shoppe' is an instant shortcut to making a place or movie set seem old and antiquated. You probably just read that first sentence and you pronounced the Y with a sound like in 'you.' However, you'd be pronouncing it wrong!

Back in the olde days, people wrote in runes similar to the ones used in Lord of the Rings. This alphabet had a different system of letters and was considerably different to the Latin alphabet we use today. 

When people started writing in a letter system similar to the one we use today, some letters stuck around, including the thorn (see image on the left) which was pronounced the same way we pronounce ‘th’ today.

When the printing press came into use, people faced a problem. There was no printing block for thorn. Printers solved this problem by using the letter Y in its place. This caused confusion and led to ‘th’ being used instead.

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If you see Bigfoot in Texas, it's legal for you to kill it

A man wrote to the state of Texas asking about the legality of killing Bigfoot, should he ever run into it while hunting. He was referring to a specific statute that defined which animals were legal to hunt and kill in Texas.

The official from Texas explained that the statute refers to which animals are considered game animals, a specific list of animals that are legal to hunt. The man's fear is that because Bigfoot wasn't included on the list, he couldn't kill it.

Texas responded by saying that the state only defines non-game animals, as animals that are native to Texas and that are not protected. If there's an animal that is not native to Texas and it's not an endangered species, then it's fair game.

This means that because Bigfoot is not officially recognized as an endangered species, you could theoretically kill it while in Texas with no repercussions. Let us know in the comments if you've ever hunted and killed Bigfoot!

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