› added 5 years ago

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TIL The communion bread market has been cornered, outcompeting nuns at monasteries

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5Y98k TIL that in January 2014, seven-year-old Charlotte Benjamin sent a handwritten letter to Lego complaining there were "more Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls". In June 2014, Lego announced a new "Research Institute" collection featuring female scientists which sold out within a week.
KYjoG TIL John D. Rockefeller's father, William Rockefeller, was a literal con artist. He erroneously claimed to be a "botanic physician" and peddled "miracle" elixirs.
4knLR TIL: Brunei has a hotel that won the 2003 Presidential Suite award. A night's stay costs $23,000 and comes with 24 carat gold lining Italian marble, a Baccarat crystal chandelier, walk in closets the size of a studio apartment, a pool, and a bar. The room is popular and constantly booked.
GYQgE TIL: the “selfie stick” was once considered so unnecessary that it was included in a Chindōgu book consisting of 101 Un-Useless Japanese Inventions by Kenji Kawakami. Chindōgu are things that are almost completely useless, but not quite.
oBR5E TIL that the Japanese have a word ("shimensoka") that means "being forsaken by everybody" or "being surrounded by enemies on all sides"