› added 9 years ago

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TIL that the Chinese call Facebook “Fei Si Bu Ke”, which literally means “doomed to die” in Chinese.

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6EVxQ TIL that 1/3 of cats have no reaction to catnip. Many cats that don't respond to catnip do respond to honeysuckle wood. Honeysuckle contains a chemical that is similar to the active ingredient in catnip. Most likely, it is this substance that puts cats into a delightful, temporarily altered state.
e05dJ TIL the stories of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad were not in the original 1001 Arabian Nights, but are believed to have been added by the French explorer Antoine Galland, who heard them from various sources in Europe and implemented the stories into new translations of the Nights.
bk7Q TIL there was a custom in ancient Babylon compelling all women at least once in their lives to go to the temple of Aphrodite and have sex with a stranger.
gkoy TIL that, following the Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland, the British home secretary, Reginald Maudling, told the House of Commons that British paratroopers had killed 13 civilians in self-defense. Bernadette McAliskey, a Northern Irish MP, walked across the floor and slapped his face.
grwXD TIL that the Sam Kee Building, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's narrowest commercial building, was built after its owner bet a business associate that he could make use of the 6 ft (1.5 m) wide strip of land he had left after the city took 79% of his land without compensating him.