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TIL The phrase 'pipe dream' is an allusion to the dreams experienced by smokers of opium pipes

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dDrVB TIL that when you vibrate soil, worms come to the surface NOT because they think it's raining, but because they think a mole is attacking them underground
8KrV TIL that in Finland, nine out of ten plastic soft drink bottles are returned for re-use. Almost one hundred percent of all glass bottles are recycled – more than anywhere else in the world.
0Bkp TIL that Crocodiles in Vietnam are skinned alive to make “luxury” leather bags, belts, and watchstraps for the world’s leading fashion brands – including Louis Vuitton – a horrifying undercover investigation has revealed.
gMayA Around 1 million people in Ireland—as well as 20,000 people in the United States—can speak Irish. It’s an ancient and unfamiliar-looking language in the Celtic group, making it a linguistic cousin of other ancient languages like Welsh, Scots, Manx, and Breton. To English speakers though, it’s a tough language to master. It has a relatively complex grammar that sees words inflected in an array of different contexts ignored in English. It uses a different word order from English that places the verb, rather than the subject, at the head of the clause. And it uses an alphabet traditionally comprising just 18 letters, so words are often pronounced completely differently from what an English speaker might expect.
d8XBr TIL It is estimated that trillions of oysters once surrounded New York City, filtering bacteria and acting as a natural buffer against storm surges.