› added 12 years ago

137

TIL that there’s 21x as many words which break the “i before e, except after c”-rule as obey it

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YVJ7 TIL: Georgia lawmaker Doug Teper proposed using a guillotine for state execution so that death-row inmates could serve as organ donors
lZ5K TIL There’s a genetic disease called Laron Syndrome that results in short stature, longer life expectancy, and near immunity to cancer and diabetes - amongst other things.
mx57P TIL The 'first recorded murder victim' revealed… from 430,000 years ago. This is the earliest clear case of deliberate, lethal interpersonal aggression in the hominin fossil record, demonstrating that this is an ancient human behaviour
aw84y Not really, but urine has been a faddish health drink for centuries nonetheless. Celts in the Iberian peninsula gargled it to whiten their teeth about 50 years before Christ; amaroli is a Sanskrit word that refers to urine therapy, which in ancient Ayurvedic practice meant imbibing urine in the morning, mid stream; Proverbs 5:15 is thought to be in support of the act ("Drink waters from thy own cistern, flowing water from thy own well"); and J.D. Salinger famously sipped his own, as did the former prime minister of India, Morarji Desai, who even appeared on 60 Minutes to defend his habit.Click here to launch a gallery about urine therapy.
jNVVv TIL about Lady Qi, consort of Emperor Gaozu founder of the Han dynasty, whose limbs were chopped off, eyes were gouged out, tongue cut off, ears cut off, made mute, locked in a pigsty and referred to as "human swine" by the Empress Dowager Lü Zhi who was apparently not on very good terms with her