› added 7 years ago

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TIL there is a subset of people that can function perfectly fine with less than 5 hours of sleep. They are early birds, night owls and short sleepers at the same time and do not need the assistance of coffee or mid-day naps to function. They are the Sleepless Elite.

wojxW TIL that unicode contains alchemical symbols (🜁🜂🜃🜄 and 104 more) because Indiana University needed to publish Isaac Newton's alchemical works online and pursued the Unicode foundation to add the symbols to assist it and other researchers working with historical and modern alchemical works
oBOPK TIL 4 out of 5 millennials have never eaten a Big Mac before, showing how McDonald's is struggling to compete with new, fast-casual burger joints
OoED7 TIL that in 2008, Minnesotsa passed a state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots, there was an exception for performers in theatrical productions. Some bars got around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors."
epaYn 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
b9Xa9 TIL that Margaret Mitchell's husband said to her "For God's sake, Peggy, can't you write a book instead of reading thousands of them?" She went on to write "Gone with the Wind."