› added 4 years ago

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TIL that fossils of sea creatures called Ammonites are considered holy symbols in the folk Hindu beliefs of India and Nepal. They and other marine fossils are found in the Himalayas, which were raised from the now-drained Tethys Sea. Climbers to Mt Everest have brought back fossils of Sea Lilies.

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4RA6 TIL that on one occasion, J.S. Bach was in Dresden at the same time as a French organist named Louis Marchand. There was to be a competition between the two men to see who was better at improvisation. Marchand heard Bach practicing the day before the competition and left town.
x6bgD TIL that during the Jonestown Massacre, many of the 900 cult followers refused to drink or administer the poisoned Flavoure-Aid to their children. And so they were just killed. Either shot in the head or poisoned by being injected with the cyanide.
nddW TIL there was an engine used in certain tanks and airplanes that was started using a shotgun shell.
QnB6 TIL when the first US ship arrived in China in 1785, the Chinese loved the American flag, calling it “as beautiful as a flower”. Since then, an informal Chinese name for the United States has been the “flower flag country”.
x64xg TIL The Bacterial Flagellum is a naturally occurring motor that spins up to 100,000 rpm with nearly 100% efficiency and can reverse its rotational direction in milliseconds