› added 4 years ago

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TIL that there are only 6 people left on the planet who can still ‘speak’ the whistled language known as sfyria.

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e5rk TIL that during WWI, Harry Houdini threw himself into the war effort, selling war bonds and teaching American soldiers how to free themselves from German handcuffs.
X0kYk TIL Traffic congestion in 18th century London led to a law being passed to make all traffic on London Bridge keep to the left in order to reduce collisions. This rule was incorporated into the Highway Act of 1835 and was adopted throughout the British Empire.
oBaMR TIL that executives at McGraw Hill were curious to find out why their accountant was on television racing a Mclaren F1 GTR, chartering Concorde trips and showing up to work in a Ferrari. Turns out he had been embezzling £2.8 million from them the past 5 years since he was recruited!
lo6G5 TIL that New York City has more people than 40 of the 50 U.S. states, has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia, and that half of New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home (and over 200 languages are spoken).
NXyZ1 TIL that Stalin didn't like constructivist architecture and under his rule cheap mass-produced buildings were de facto banned from being built in large cities, which instead were filled with grandiose buildings with detailed façades and labour intensive masonry.