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378

TIL spiders can taste

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dxjZ TIL in 1952 Albert Einstein was offered the Presidency of Israel
mx6kv TIL Tolkein popularised "dwarves" as the plural of "dwarf" to differentiate his fantasy dwarves from humans with dwarfism, for whom the correct plural was "dwarfs". The dwarf trope became so entrenched that "dwarves" is now widely recognised as the standard plural of "dwarf" even for humans
yLRM TIL in ancient Rome, a gladiator was only someone who fought against other men. If you were in the arena facing wild beasts, you were called a bestiarii. There were two types of bestiarii: those condemned to die in such a manner, and those doing it voluntarily, for pay or for glory.
ykkp TIL Netflix uses disguised warehouses and unmarked trucks for security purposes
W7Gl8 TIL about the Republic of Winston, a county that, during the American Civil War, attempted to secede from the state of Alabama. Their thinking was, " if a state could secede from the Union, then a county could secede from the state."