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TIL mosques built within 100 years of Muhammad's life are oriented to face toward the Jordanian city Petra, not Mecca. There is a dearth of archaeological evidence underneath Mecca.

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8egEX TIL tipping was abolished in Switzerland in 1974 after a dispute over taxes on tips. Service is now included in prices, with higher wages replacing tips.
dD0Z8 TIL In the 1500s, a priest named Diego de Landa asked a Maya scribe to produce an alphabet of his language and write a sentence. The sentence the scribe wrote was "Ma’ in k’áati’" (I don't want to). The sentence was deciphered in the late 1900s as Maya writing is syllabic, not alphabetic.
p80v4 TIL the phrase "mad as a hatter" originates from East England where hat-makers in the area suffered from dementia-induced insanity due to inhaling fumes from burning mercury as a part of the hat-making process.
O4xX TIL that the oysters in Chesapeake Bay used to be able to filter the entire volume of water in 3 days. This process now takes nearly a year.
KN8a TIL that since 2010, Randy Quaid and his wife have been living in Canada under refugee status on the grounds that they fear for their lives in the United States, claiming that numerous actors have died under mysterious circumstances committed by the “Hollywood star whackers”.