› added 5 months ago

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TIL that "U and non-U English" was a British theory of dialects in the 1950s that noted that the aspiring middle classes actually used "more refined" language than the upper classes - like "pardon?" instead of "what?", and to "pass on" instead of to "die"

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jjMv TIL the best paid sportsman of all-time was the Roman charioteer Gaius Appuleius Diocles. Before retiring in 146 AD, Diocles had won 1,462 races, resulting in winning over 35,863,120 sesterces in prize-money. By today’s standards, that last figure would cash out to about $15 billion.
X0XRE TIL Abraham Lincoln once said "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races"
Lk8dQ TIL Dolphins sleep 'unihemispheric'. They rest one hemisphere of their brain at a time, and even sleep with one eye open. They cannot breathe unconsciously; they have to actively decide when to breathe & would drown if they slept 'polyhemispheric' like us.
Vw0Q TIL elephants are the only other mammals that have death rituals
ZQ1Q TIL North Korea executed 80 people for secretly watching the ABC drama “Desperate Housewives”