› added 5 years ago

76

TIL that the shamisen, a Japanese stringed instrument, was traditionally made of dog or cat skin

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JYLR8 TIL that Sun Wukong from League of Legends was based off an actual Chinese Novel that dates back hundreds of years. And here I was thinking all those Chinese Mobile games featuring that monkey was ripping off LOL.
ANgGw TIL Saturn's rings are made up of ice which is diamagnetic and hence resides in the place with the lowest magnetic effect: the equator
X0BPE TIL not all placentas are disc-shaped like ours. Diffuse placentas are spread throughout the placenta (ex: horse, pig), Cotyledonary placentas are split between separate "cotyledons" (sheep, cattle). Zonary placentas are ring-shaped (dogs), and discoid placentas are circular (ex: primates, rodents)
v1raR TIL of the "Yankee Samurai," Japanese-American translators who served during WW2 with the US Army's Military Intelligence Service. They deployed to numerous battles, and one general even credited them with "[shortening] the Pacific War by two years and [saving]...a million American lives.”
aQdN TIL of the Peter Principle: Employees tend to be promoted based on their performance in their current role, not how fit they are for their next role, so that every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence