› added 9 years ago

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TIL that Europeans did not know anything about potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, chocolate, corn, peanuts and vanilla until the “discovery” of the Americas.

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via reddit.com

B0Nx TIL that the “Vaportini” is a device whereby users heat alcoholic beverages and become intoxicated by inhaling the resulting vapors
GYo9j TIL that Jedediah Smith, an explorer of the American West, survived a bear attack. The animal had smashed his ribs, torn off his scalp, and chewed one of his ears off. He calmly told a friend to sew his scalp and severed ear back on. After 10 days, he was again leading his expedition.
GGaQ TIL bluesman R. L. Burnside once killed a man at a dice game. When asked about the incident, he said: “I didn’t mean to kill nobody. I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head and two times in the chest. Him dying was between him and the Lord.”
VMYmB TIL: In Medieval Germany, peasants believed in a magical land called “Cockaigne”, or “schlaraffenland”, where you could grab pork sausage off of trees or have cooked fish swim out of a beer river and onto your plate. This tale stuck and motivated the working class; in fact, it’s still told today!
7ZMb TIL There exists a, “Devil’s Interval,” a series of notes so dissonant and alluring, musicians would be put to death by the clergy during the middle ages for playing them.