› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Irish dance is rumored to have started when the British banned dancing during the Irish oppression....leading them to start dancing with a stiff top half so that British soldiers couldn’t tell through home windows.

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8aZPa TIL that Cocaine, Nicotine and Caffeine all belong to a group of chemicals known as alkaloids that also includes quinine(a malaria drug), HHT(a leukemia drug) and Atropine(the toxic component in deadly nightshade). These chemicals tend to be basic but can also be neutral or even weakly acidic.
W1jd TIL: That the phrase “Can’t hold a candle next to (insert name here).” Stems from the fact that apprentices used to be expected to hold the candle so that more experienced workmen were able to see what they were doing. Someone unable even to do that would be of low status indeed.
E1Erd TIL that when cable was introduced it was advertised as having no commercials due to being a paying service.
9YAWm TIL that there exists a species of sharks that can live up to 500 years. That means that some of them lived through the founding of the US, industrial revolution, and two world wars and are still alive today
4XJD5 TIL that in 1914, thousands of allied troops were transported from Paris to the Battle of the Marne in local taxis.