› added 5 years ago

169

TIL in Japan, establishments like banks & convenience stores visibly keep baseball-sized orange orbs behind the counter. These “anticrime color balls” are filled with bright pigment that burst on impact & are for employees to lob at robbers (or getaway vehicles) to improve the chance of arrest.

1aNG4 TIL Persian King Cambyses won the battle of Pelusium against Egypt by using their reverence of animals against them - his front line was dogs, sheep, cats, ibises & whatever other animals the Egyptians hold dear, & the Persian soldiers had the image of Bastet (cat goddess) painted on their shields.
v1JZR TIL Kodhini, a tiny village in India's southern state of Kerala, has a surprisingly high twins birth rate — 42 of every 1000 births, almost six times as high as the global average of around 6 per 1000 births. No genetic or environmental factor has been ascertained to this phenomenon yet.
e0VZg Today I learned that one of the first human names ever recorded and is still used in modern times is Anita.
DQoPv TIL Belgian authorities destroyed over 2,300 cans of an American beer branded as ‘The Champagne of Beers’ because the beer’s slogan was considered a misuse of the term “Champagne”, which is legally protected and reserved exclusively for the sparkling wine produced in the Champagne region of France.
e0R4b TIL Philips couldn't use their name on any of their products in the United States, because their name was too similar to Philco. So, they decided to name their US products "Norelco" until 1974, and then "Magnavox" until 1981, when Philps bought Philco.