› added 10 months ago

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TIL American English and Chinese use different strategies of politeness. If complimented, most Americans will agree with commenter and thank them to be polite but if complimented many Chinese will express it via rejecting the compliment and denigrating themselves to avoid appearing conceitful

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44nN TIL In 1897, 6 Inuit were taken to the Museum of Natural Science to be studied. All but two died of disease. A boy who survived pleaded for his dead father to have a traditional burial, so the curators staged a fake burial to trick the boy. Years later, the boy found his fathers skeleton on display.
KY95E TIL a white guy was the first to sag his pants, starting in the 1950's
rNNoo TIL Mau Piailug can be credited with keeping traditional wayfinding alive for the indigenous peoples of Oceania
pZwb TIL during the Viking age many Scandanavians wore mini Thor hammers around their necks
JYVQm TIL there is a group of scam baiters who turn the tables on the people who send out scam emails. In one case, they convinced a Nigerian scammer to travel 700 miles to Arabic-speaking Chad even though he didn't speak the language and didn't have enough money to make his way back home.