› added 7 years ago

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TIL: That Japan’s oldest elephant died this year after 60 years alone in an enclosure devoid of grass, trees, or other elephants.

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d888K TIL That in the 1700’s, tomatoes were thought to be poisonous because people died after eating them. The real issue was people using pewter plates and the acidity of tomatoes leached lead out of them causing lead poisoning
N7mJP TIL that France built a fake Paris in WWI to confuse german bombers, which was located North of Real Paris
awkYb TIL "Irish goodbye" refers to a person ducking out of a party, social gathering or very bad date without bidding farewell. The phrase is attributed to the Potato Famine of 1845-1852, when many Irish fled their homeland for America. The distance and technology meant that they were gone forever.
VMNLG TIL most of the Total War franchise's music was composed by Jeff Van Dyck. His wife Angela van Dyck even features in some of Rome Total War's songs like Forever, which plays during the credits and Angela also wrote the lyrics for the song Divinitus, written in quasi-Latin
8o4G TIL There is a rare type of lava called Natrocarbonatite. It’s so cold it glows only at night. It’s black, but within hours turns white.