› added 8 years ago

258

TIL Why the spicy mustard you get with Chinese food, burns your sinuses instead of mostly your tongue is because it’s got a different chemical than capsaicin that is more volatile. It basically evaporates when you chew it.

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4kXJJ TIL the closest relatives of cetaceans (whales) are hippopotamuses
EgKvp TIL a survey found that 46% of men were either very confident (20%) or somewhat confident (26%) that they could land a passenger plane by themselves in an emergency situation, as long as they could talk to air traffic control. Only 20% of women felt the same (7% very confident, 13% somewhat).
Z8dkp TIL That when Benito Mussolini lost control of Italy, he was actually overthrown by his own fascist government.
69WkJ TIL the band KISS had to change their logo when performing in Germany because their S's looked like the Nazi SS emblem
7r7N7 TIL in 1817 an English man named Abraham Thornton successfully avoided a murder charge by demanding "trial by battle." It turned out that the practice was still technically allowed under the law despite having not been used for hundreds of years. Parliament finally abolished it one year later.