› added 6 years ago

412

TIL that Tolkien never once describes the elves as having pointed ears.

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e0W16 TIL that 'unblocking your ears' / (pinching your nose and exhaling) is called the "Valsalva maneuver"
M7yyA TIL there was a craze amongst American foodies for guinea pigs. At one company in Connecticut, imports nearly doubled since 2008 — from 600 guinea pigs per year then to more than 1,000 in 2013. The animals, called cuyes in Spanish, are usually cooked whole, often grilled, sometimes deep fried.
a8DM0 TIL of the existence of giant viruses. Their sizes rival that of some bacteria (1.5-2uM) and they encode thousands of unknown genes. One of the largest was discovered and revived in 2014 from 30,000 year old Siberian permafrost, revealing thawing permafrost as a reservoir of ancient giant viruses.
W7GN8 TIL Tiny the Wonder was a dog that was famous in mid-1800s London for killing 200 rats in an hour
KYBG TIL: Sweden made slavery illegal as early as 1337