› added 8 years ago

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TIL that it is a very common misconception that the poinsettia is poisonous. The rumor started when a 3yo’s death was falsely blamed on poinsettia, and it has been passed on that poinsettias are poisonous for about 100 years.

aj5M TIL The Canadian $1,000 bill was retired on May 12, 2000, for being mostly used in criminal transactions, any $1,000 note deposited at a bank is destroyed, although the bills — nicknamed “pinkies” by gangsters because of the pinkish-purple ink — remain legal tender.
rRBao TIL Queen Elizabeth II was tricked into conducting a 17-minute telephone conversation with a Canadian radio DJ/impressionist who she believed to be the then Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien.
YpyLW TIL that in a Himalayan village of Malana, in case of conflict between two people, two lambs are assigned to each party – making a deep cut in the foreleg to insert poison in the body. The party whose lamb dies earlier is believed to have lost the case.
lowoG TIL hummingbird nests are the smallest in the world. Most species of hummingbirds weave spider silk into the nest for structural support and to make it more elastic to accommodate the offspring as they grow. Often lichen will be attached to the outside of the nest for camouflage.
worP6 TIL that in the 19th Century, Rudolf Lindt, of the famous Lindt chocolate family, accidentally invented the crucial step of "conching" chocolate – rolling the warm cocoa mass to make it smooth and reduce its acidity – by leaving a cocoa mass mixer running overnight.