› added 4 years ago

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TIL Massachusetts has an optional tax rate when you file taxes (so you can pay more taxes if you wish), and it was originally proposed as a joke. “We were just being sarcastic. The next thing we knew, the legislature seemed to find our sarcasm relevant and so they passed the idea we had."

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0Gdy TIL that a major cause of human rabies deaths in India is faith healing as people believe that they’ve been impregnated by puppies after being bitten by a dog and consult a healer instead of a doctor before it’s too late. This mass hysteria is called Puppy pregnancy syndrome.
J11y4 TIL The Outback Way is a 2,700 km "shortcut" directly through the Australian Outback. Without it, the trip from Winton to Laverton would be over 4,000 kms.
nWDjb TIL Queen Alexandra, Queen consort to King Edward VII, wore high collars and chokers to conceal a neck scar, and walked with a slight limp caused by rheumatic fever. Her style and popularity were so influential that women began copying the 'Alexandra limp' and chokers became highly fashionable.
9wP7G TIL that hundreds of miniature coffins containing frogs have been found in archaeological sites across Finland, primarily under churches and ecclesiastical buildings, believed to be a form of “protective magic”
e0Wb5 TIL that Longyou Grottoe, which are no less than 2,000 years old, represent one of the largest underground excavations of ancient times. Scientists from around the world have absolutely no idea how they were built, by whom, and why.