› added 3 weeks ago

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TIL that publisher Jonathan Cape initially accepted Animal Farm by Orwell, but backtracked after a warning from Ministry of Information. It was later discovered that the civil servant who likely gave the warning was a Soviet spy.

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nD87 TIL that if you have blue eyes, you may be related to every other blue-eyed person in the world. Researchers in Denmark have found that every person with blue eyes descends from just one “founder,” an ancestor whose genes mutated 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Before then, everyone had brown eyes.
69WmZ TIL about the ‘Yakhchal’ which is an ancient structure used to produce, harvest, and store ice.
XAME TIL that during the depression era Hobos had a set of symbols that they would draw to warn other hobos about their surroundings.
p8m6O TIL that Russians call roller coasters "American Mountains" even though roller coaster are called "Russian Mountains" in many languages around the world
8e8l4 TIL about a yoga practice where you prolong your tongue by sticking it to your own nasal cavity