› added 2 months ago

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TIL The song "Yankee Doodle" was originally sung by the British during the Revolutionary War to mock Americans. "Yankee doodle dandy" meant an uncultured, effeminate, American. When the Americans began winning, they started singing the song themselves to mock the British.

R6Vl TIL in the 1970s, over 700,000 tires, held together by steel, were dumped off the coast of Florida to create an artificial reef. The steel later rusted apart, detaching the tires and causing an environmental disaster.
d8laE TIL that after a heart transplant you'll have a resting pulse of around 90 bpm since the vagus nerve that usually regulates heart rate is cut during the transplant. The heart will still beat faster during exercise due to its internal regulatory mechanism, but the new "idle" will be around 90 bpm.
BrLxk Today I learned that being late in Brazil is so part of the culture, if they want to start on time they say “com pontualidade britânica” which means “with British punctuality.”
5YPmr TIL that Sean Connery was offered the role of Gandalf in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and turned it down because he 'never understood the script', causing him to loose out on 450 million dollars
QYgL TIL two different men disappeared in Naples, Florida one year apart. Both were last seen being arrested by the same officer. Neither of them were officially ‘booked’ as the officer told investigators he dropped them both off at gas stations. Their bodies have never been found.