› added 10 years ago

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TIL: No one knows for sure why tennis points go 15-30-40, or even why 0 is called love.

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Ooylg TIL a woman in France accidentally received a phone bill of €11,721,000,000,000,000 (million billion). This was 5000x the GDP of France at the time. It took several days of wrangling before the phone company finally admitted it was a mistake and she owed just €117.21. They let her off.
Z8OPD TIL: In the past, the soccer balls were brown or white. The black pentagons were introduced for television at the 1970 World Cup to show viewers the position and rotation of the ball on black and white television.
16xPO TIL when a cat purrs, it can mean more than just contentment. Cats also purr when they are frightened, in pain, or even when they are expiring. It's considered a self-soothing, and self-healing mechanism, as their 25-150Hz frequency purr vibration can improve bone and soft tissue regeneration.
oB0N7 TIL A 2018 study found strong evidence for the link between olfaction and obesity. That is, the sense of smell is negatively correlated with body weight.
4Xjo5 TIL about 'Pteridomania', a Victorian craze for ferns. Numerous ferneries appeared across the countries, with the fern motif 'appearing on everything from christening presents to gravestones and memorials', and even custard cream biscuits.