› added 10 years ago

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TIL In 1575 Native Americans, converting to Catholicism, had brought the practice of smoking into churches during the liturgy. Tobacco smoke, in their traditions, evoked the spirits, so naturally they mixed their smoke into the liturgical incense.

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PRL TIL if you type 153349 followed by pressing the + and - keys simultaneously on most Canon calculators, you can play Tetris!
x6Xb7 TIL during the rise of Japan as a major economic power, seen as an economic threat to the US, anti-Japanese sentiment was so high that a Chinese American was beaten to death before his wedding on the assumption that he was Japanese. In 1987, US congressmen smashed Toshiba products on Capitol Hill
p88n8 TIL female hyenas have “pseudo penises” that can have erections. They also use it to urinate, have sex, and give birth.
OD1 TIL Stalin once said to Winston Churchill, “God is on your side? Is He a Conservative? The Devil’s on my side, he’s a good Communist.”
AD9Lx TIL of the Semmelweis reflex, a tendency to reject evidence that contradicts existing beliefs. Documented when doctors refused to wash their hands from autopsies to delivery rooms despite evidence this decreases mortality.