› added 5 years ago

101

TIL that tomato sauce is not Italian at all but Mexican. The first tomato sauces were already being sold in the markets of Tenochtitlan when Spaniards arrived, and had many of the same ingredients (tomatoes, bell peppers, chilies) that would later define Italian tomato pasta sauces 200 years later.

R6Ol TIL that pistachios are classified under the Class 4.2 of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods code: Flammable Solids (Substances Liable to Spontaneous Combustion). Fresh pistachios, if stacked under pressure, can burst into flames and cause a cargo fire.
69m6Q TIL that the majority of psychological research has been found to have a “WEIRD bias,” meaning that test subjects were from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies. As much as 96% of data comes from countries with only 12% of the world's population.
JYg0B TIL Bookkeeper (or bookkeeping) is the only English word with 3 consecutive double letters
M7LEW TIL that "...Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears was heard by Simon Cowell who knew it would be a hit. He offered the writer, Max Martin an Aston Martin if he would give the song to his boy band, Five. Five initially began writing verses; however, Martin had promised the song to Britney.
GY6LG TIL that on August 16, 1858, Queen Victoria sent a message of approximately 100 words to U.S. President James Buchanan. It took nearly seventeen hours to transmit by Morse code through about 2,500 miles of cable at a depth of often more than two miles.