› added 2 years ago

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TIL that universal peace symbol comes up from merging letters "N" and "D" of the flag semaphore, standing for "nuclear disarmament".

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Z4JY TIL that a ruby is just a red sapphire. Both are the mineral corundum, a type of aluminum oxide, rubies just have a chromium impurity making them red.
x6oQD TIL Dress shops in Manhattan used headless mannequins in their windows because it was thought that a face would be distracting. In 1935, Cora Scoville invented a plaster composition and made mannequins with faces resembling fashion editors. Bonwit Teller started a new trend using these mannequins.
P1ZkG TIL that skatole, one of the many foul-smelling chemicals responsible for the odor of feces, will instead have a pleasant, flowery smell in very low concentrations is a major contributor to the smell of jasmine and orange blossoms.
OGaoa TIL that as far back as 400 BCE, the Chinese used rapid fire Crossbows that could shoot 7–10 bolts in 15–20 seconds, with an effective range of 70 meters and a maximum range of 180 meters. They were primarily used for defense of gates and doorways.
6oel TIL nearly 200 years before turducken became popular, there was the Rôti Sans Pareil: a bustard stuffed with a turkey-goose-pheasant-chicken-duck-guinea fowl-teal-woodcock-partridge-plover-lapwing-quail-thrush-lark-ortolan-bunting and garden warbler, the last being just big enough to hold an olive.