› added 5 days ago

2

TIL all the Chinese languages share a common written language (wenyan), but it has no single standard of pronunciation. The spoken varieties of Chinese are mutually unintelligible to their respective speakers, including Mandarin, Wu, Min; Gan (Kan), Hakka (Kejia), Xiang; and Cantonese (Yue)

Read more britannica.com

via reddit.com

VMmJQ TIL Whole Foods hires its employees by a process known as "Team Member voting" (Where your coworkers in your department will vote on you. A 2/3rd majority of them must vote to keep you on in order for you to stay and become a regular team member).
LveQ TIL that in 1946, the UK created a secret torture program targeting communists, many of whom survived Nazi concentration camps.
xeQg TIL that the Mystery Flavor of Dum Dums lollipops is a mixture of two flavors that come together when the end of one batch of candy meets the beginning of the next batch. Thus, the Mystery Flavor continually changes.
ANN7B TIL the iconic Australian hat is bent up on one side to allow the armed forces maneuver rifles on and off their shoulders without hitting the brim.
gM0pW TIL of Qin Shi Huang the 1st emperor of China. Obsessed with immortality he sent out quests for magicians & searched for powerful mountains to give him long life. Reportedly, he died from poisoning due to ingesting mercury pills, made by his physicians believing it to be an elixir of immortality.