Post * JYvpQ — Curious Curator

› added 4 years ago

69

TIL of Tek Sing often referred to as "Titanic of the East". Happening 90 years before the Titanic went down, the Tek Sing was overloaded with cargo and also carried 1,600 emigrants, akin to the Titanic they were low on lifeboats from the start. Less than 190 people were rescued.

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YpePx TIL about Ralph Lauren, the billionaire fashion mogul. His last name was Lifshitz but he changed it to Lauren when he was 16 because it had the word 'shit' in it and other children used to make fun of him.

e08r6 TIL that both South Korea and the Maldives once used the tune of Scottish song "Auld Lang Syne" for their anthems. South Korea inherited it from Scottish missionaries. The poet behind the Maldives' anthem, for his part, chose the music after hearing it chiming out of an uncle's novelty clock

xVWQg TIL grasshoppers & locusts are the same species. Grasshoppers are generally solitary & innocuous, but when overcrowded, a chemical releases in their brain which turns them into a locust — ravenous, horny, and attracted to large groups. Oddly enough, that brain chemical is: Serotonin

ZBdv TIL Ancient Romans would flood the Colosseum and stage naval battles.

16gGV TIL that there is poem nearly two thousand years old accusing someone of insurance fraud: Epigram III.52 by Roman satirist Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis).