› added 3 months ago

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TIL about “English as She is Spoke”, a Portuguese-English translation guide, written by an author that had no grasp of English. He used a Portuguese-French and then a French-English guide for help instead. The resulting book was read by both Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln to have a good laugh.

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VMPvm TIL Prehistoric Europeans made clay baby bottles in the shape of cute animals. These bottles have been found in the graves of infants, indicating an importance greater than simply function.
4XKBo TIL The film E.T. was shown at the United Nations (1982) and Spielberg received a UN Peace Prize. Princess Diana was reportedly moved to tears by the film.
jJeX TIL Denmark & Norway were a single country between 1524 - 1814 and Sweden and Norway were a single country between 1814 - 1905
wP6E TIL there exists an upside down stoplight in Syracuse, NY because in 1925, a group of local Irish youths refused to let the red light (Britain) to be above the green light (Ireland).
yQGQp TIL Firefighters use wetting agents to make water more "wet". The chemicals added reduce the surface tension of plain water so it's easier to spread and soak into objects.