› added 10 years ago

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TIL Gandhi waves around nukes in Civilization because a glitch in Civ 1 (where Gandhi’s aggressive stat, set at 1, became negative upon completion of democracy) and since -1 was not a stat the game reverted it to the maximum aggressive stat, and that’s how Gandhi became a warmonger.

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gMaVy TIL that the scientist who created one of the earliest racial classification systems believed that none of the races were inherently inferior to the others, nor that colored peoples were uncivilized. His classification system became very influential but his opposition to racism was mostly ignored.
oBKkR TIL about a poisonous lagoon at an abandoned quarry that was dyed black because the water's naturally tropical blue colour was considered too inviting to swimmers.
k01B TIL many phrases in English come from literal translations of Chinese phrases, such as “long time no see”, “no go”, “lose face” and “no can do”
Yp48Z TIL that the 'low man on the totem pole' is actually the most important person on a totem pole
awpmM TIL The New York Times was hoaxed into running an article about "grunge speak." A reporter pressured a receptionist from Sub Pop Records about whether grunge fans had their own slang. On the spot, she made up terms like "harsh realm," "cob nobbler" and "lamestain." The article was never corrected.