› added 12 years ago

93

TIL that Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu a hill in New Zealand, translates to “the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as ‘landeater,’ played his flute to his loved one” and is arguably the longest place name.

Read more facstaff.bucknell.edu

via reddit.com

Me1mW TIL that the word "addict" comes from the Latin root for "slave," because addicts are essentially slaves to their drugs.
ZbLD TIL Laos is the most bombed country on Earth: The U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos from 1964 to 1973 during the Vietnam War. That’s equal to a planeload every 8 minutes for 9 years.
OobyR TIL of Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln, a Hungarian Jew, throughout his life he had jobs such as a Christian Priest, an MP and conman, in WW1 he became a German spy, took part in a Nationalist Revolt in Germany and met Hitler, left to China and was a Buddhist Abbot and claimed he was the next Dali Lamar.
d8nLj TIL that Greek art strongly influenced Buddhist art following Alexander's conquests across the Middle East. Statues of Buddha did not exist before this, and Greco-Buddhism reached as far as Japan, where the wind God Fujin is still closely modeled after depictions the Greek wind God Boreas.
pxdQ TIL: There’s a subway ticket machine in Moscow that accepts 30 squats as payment. Installed ahead of the 2014 Sochi Olympics to “bring sports to the people”.