› added 3 weeks ago

5

TIL that Japanese courtesans (oiran) weren’t just sex workers, they were elite artists trained in poetry, music, and tea ceremony, and “considered the height of fashion, and many women imitated their hairstyles and clothing.“

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W1Ld TIL that a generator exists that runs on urine. It can provide electricity for six hours on one liter of urine. The generator was invented by four African school girls.
EgrGV TIL about Ely Samuel Parker, a Tonawanda Seneca who was formally educated and served as an interpreter and tribal representative from the age of fourteen. During the Civil War he served on the staff of Ulysses S. Grant as military secretary and wrote out the official copy of the terms of surrender.
4XQKJ TIL that Ponzi schemes are at their highest levels in ten years. There were at least 60 major Ponzi schemes in 2020 alone, costing investors over $3 billion. The SEC and others say "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
xVLob TIL Mac Hadley, experimented on himself by injecting a sunless tanning compound he was working on, but instead it gave him an eight-hour erection along with nausea and vomiting
kJ6n1 TIL in 2020, 9 states and 2 U.S. territories had prohibitions on smoking in cars with children. The age threshold varied by jurisdiction ranging from under age 8 in Vermont to under age 18 in California. Penalties also varied by state and territory.