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TIL the cause of discomfort from eating raw kiwis and pineapples, microscopic needles that tear your mouth called Raphides.

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nebe7 TIL about City-Gods. In Folk Chinese Religion, adherents believe that when a city is founded, a local deity shall emerge in heaven & watch over that specific city & its people. These deities are usually deified historic local officials, or local spirits & Dragons living in nearby holy sites/rivers.
4k8m5 TIL that Poppy flowers became associated with the military after a Canadian poet was inspired by a field of poppies near a mass grave in Belgium folliwing World War 1. The poppies grew there after the bombing and trench warfare churned up the soil, exposing dormant poppy seeds to the sunlight.
pPOe TIL that In 1970, a dead sperm whale on an Oregon beach was blown up with dynamite in an attempt to get rid of the decomposing corpse. Flying debris from the blast destroyed the roof of a nearby car, and onlookers were covered with whale particles.
X5QX TIL penguins were once introduced in Norway. One of them was promptly shot by a Norwegian matron who claimed it was a freak of nature that had invaded her yard.
xVON5 TIL in the final years of World War II, Italian businessman Giorgio Perlasca risked his life by posing as a Spanish diplomat in order to save more than 5,000 Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. Perlasca, a non-Jew, has been honored for his heroism, courage, and compassion by several nations