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196

TIL Brain Training games don’t make you any smarter.

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nWwDG TIL that in 1963, the Japanese song "Ue o Muite Arukō" became the first song in a non-European language to top the US charts. The song, inspired by the US military’s presence in Japan, is about whistling to stop yourself from crying.
4X0O5 TIL that up until 2013, a woman living in Paris, France could, in theory, be arrested for wearing pants (trousers) without authorization! This was the result of a forgotten local ordinance from 1800, which was abrogated on the spot for violation of gender equality.
4krvX TIL that "The Human Torch" premiered 27 years before being included in the Fantastic Four. His original incarnation was a police officer who was secretly an android that could engulf itself in and control fire.
wLk0o TIL In 1994, in an attempt to ban raves, the UK passed a law banning public performance of music “wholly or predominantly characterized by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.” In response, the electronic band Autechre issued a track, Flutter, in which no two bars have the same beat.
9vB7 TIL There is a Japanese legend of a completely enclosed ship that washed ashore with a young woman inside that spoke a foreign language with a hairstyle that can’t be found in any literature.