› added 9 years ago

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TIL that mice sing just like birds, but we can’t hear them

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D1XOv TIL, The truth behind an online 'Blue Whale Challenge' which is also known as 'suicide challenge'. The "Blue Whale challenge" was reported to be an online "suicide game" aimed at teenagers which set 50 tasks over 50 days. The challenge was alleged to be linked to numerous deaths around the world.
OoaG1 TIL that we say "redhead" since red was the only relevant color word in Old and Middle English. Oranges arrived in England after 1300 AD and only became a color descriptor after 1540. Carrots arrived in 1530 but were purple and yellow at the time, as orange carrots were only popularized after 1600.
6EeZ7 TIL that J.R.R. Tolkien. once received a goblet from a fan inscribed with "One Ring to Rule Them All..." inscribed on the rim in black speech. Tolkien never drank out of it, since it was written in an accursed language, and instead used it as an ashtray.
N71mM TIL Newton kept an encrypted list of sins in his private diary which was partially decoded only in 1964
noy7 TIL since the 1990s, Carmel, Indiana has been replacing all signaled intersections with roundabouts. Benefits include gas savings of 24k gallons/year per roundabout; construction costs $125,000 less per intersection; injury accidents dropped by 80 percent and total accidents dropped by 40 percent.