› added 9 years ago

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TIL that McDonald’s faced controversy when they opened their first stores in the U.K. Applicants were asked if they wished to contribute money to an I.R.A. McDonald’s was referring to an Individual Retirement Account, but the public assumed they meant the Irish Republican Army.

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v0eD TIL At age 16, John Smith of Pocahontas fame was a pirate, sold into slavery in Turkey, had a love affair with his Turkish mistress, killed her husband and three others in a single duel, escaped to Russia, and accidentally blew his genitals off.
PYp0Z TIL a Stanford study (2016) found a positive correlation between use of profanity and honesty. In both individuals and groups, those who use profanity tend to be more fucking honest.
bQ7j TIL that the Bible specifically forbids Christians from filing civil lawsuits against one another, requiring that they pursue arbitration with a Christian authority.
eppnL TIL prostate cancer is the cancer a non-smoking man is most likely to die from in the US.
n9k7 TIL There was an octopus named Otto that figured out he could turn off the lights in his aquarium and threw a chess board out of his tank once he was bored of it.