› added 5 years ago

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TIL that ordering shorts or trousers online is a damn minefield, due to the prevalence of Vanity Sizing (US/UK issue) that labels clothing as being a lot smaller than they actually are. I normally shop where I can try shit on, but most of the shops in the UK are still shut, so forced to go online.

b6L4 TIL that Martin Luther wrote a 65,000 word antisemitic treatise called “On the Jews and Their Lies,” which states that Jews are “full of the devil’s feces…which they wallow in like swine,” and that their synagogue is “an incorrigible whore and an evil slut.”
oR4jW TIL the most widely read Nigerian novelists writing in English, including Helon Habila, Teju Cole, Adichie, reside outside of Nigeria. Starting from Chinua Achebe, novels written by African authors were almost always published in the West first
lorL5 TIL the furthest point anyone can be from any sea on Earth is the Gurbantünggüt Desert in China which is over 1600 miles from the nearest coastline
16KNO TIL that the world’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black, was issued on 1 May 1840. Featuring a portrait of 15-year-old Queen Victoria, it revolutionised mail. Over 68 million were printed, and until 1854, when perforations were introduced, each had to be cut out by hand with scissors.
5YMJB TIL the worlds biggest airplane by wingspan is the Stratolaunch. The twin-fusalage aircraft with a wingspan of 385ft will serve as an airborne rocket launching pad capable of holding a 550,000 pound payload such as the Pegasus XL rocket and launch it into low earth orbit during flight.