› added 7 months ago

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TIL East Timor can be translated to "East East" as the word "Timor" is Malay for "East." This is an example of a tautological place name; where two parts which sound different are actually synonymous.

vpD TIL that religious authorities in the United Arab Emirates issued a fatwā against Pokémon because it encouraged gambling, and was based on the theory of evolution, “a Jewish-Darwinist theory, that conflicts with the truth about humans and with Islamic principles”.
jNMGQ TIL in 1981 members of a U.S. nuclear semiotics team believed if the world ended, survivors 10,000 years in the future might not know what the radiation symbol means. So they proposed breeding bioluminescent cats that would glow when they came near radiation to serve as living indicators of danger.
oBKrL TIL the underbelly membrane of lobsters is the toughest material of all natural hydrogels, including collagen, animal skins, and natural rubber. The membrane is about as strong as industrial rubber composites, such as those used to make car tires, garden hoses, and conveyor belts.
loBar TIL that there was a second Titanic. The Titanic was one of 3 ships called the Olympic Cruisers. The reason why the actual Titanic was called 'unsinkable' was because its sister ship, the Olympic, had a years history of crashing into stuff and refusing to go down.
09NA TIL that test audiences that viewed the film “Good Night and Good Luck” prior to its release complained that the actor who played Joe McCarthy was too over-the-top, not realizing that the film used archival footage of McCarthy himself.