› added 9 years ago

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TIL the Japanese call their currency “en”. The reason it’s “yen” in English is because early Japanese-English dictionary compliers didn’t know that the pronunciation had changed.

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e0laE TIL in order to charge more for cinnamon Arab traders claimed that the sticks were used by deadly birds to build their nest. The only way to get it was to trick the bird into trying fill its nest with heavy pieces of meat. The nest would fall and the cinnamon would be taken before the birds attacked
Z84ZY TIL of the 100th Infantry Battalion, famously made up of primarily Hawaiians of Japanese descent that went on to serve with distinction during WWII in the European Theater, still exists to this day as a reserve unit for troops from American territories in the Pacific.
WkEn9 TIL "New Car smell" is caused by chemicals that could cause health problems
dpeE TIL that Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based the book on his personal experience working for a chocolate factory in his youth, with giant elaborate machines and secretive practices as a result of spies and espionage attempts between competing factories.
pYAL8 TIL slingshot spiders use a tensioned web like a spring to launch themselves and their webs at prey with 100 times the acceleration of a cheetah, making them the fastest arachnids.