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TIL - In 1853, Elizabeth Jones built a 7,690sq-ft mansion (dubbed Wyndcliffe) in affluent Rhinebeck, NY, overlooking the Hudson River. The unusually impressive house prompted wealthy neighbors to expand & remodel their own homes, to "keep up with the Joneses” - giving birth to the common saying.

Read more history.howstuffworks.com

via reddit.com

69MrW TIL near the center of a black hole or in the first moments of the universe, Einstein’s equations break
v84j TIL Thomas Jefferson believed blacks were inherently inferior to whites, but were superior in musical ability.
OG9dg TIL that olives can cause cats to become playful and excited because they contain a compound called nepetalactone, which can also be found in catnip.
Eep TIL a British woman with severe Tourettes Syndrome owns a website where she records her own favorite vocal tics, and asks people to illustrate their favorites. Examples: “Batman breast fed my mum,” and “Roman velociraptor training scheme, artichoke speaking.”
Brkvx TIL: Bōnenkai is a Japanese drinking party that is organized at the end of a year. It literally translates to "forget the year gathering" and is meant to forget the woes and troubles of the past year, and hopefully look to the new year