› added 4 years ago

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TIL that the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata is the longest poem ever written with 200,000 verses and 1.8 million words. It was orally transmitted for centuries before being written down 2500 years ago.

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v1nDK TIL Mozart's Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, is the only surviving bassoon concerto of the five concertos that he wrote for it. The bassoon was already a well-established solo instrument in the Baroque period, having inspired Antonio Vivaldi to write 39 concertos for bassoon
wQMW TIL Canada has a national park that is larger than Switzerland.
j6dXE TIL of Dr. Benjamin Spock, a pediatrician whose 1946 book "Baby and Child Care" is one of the best-selling books of the twentieth century. His then unconventional advice to parents to show affection to their children and to see them as individuals revolutionized how parents raised their children.
BYWb TIL The Roman Imperial army created specialised fighting units to capture dangerous wild animals to fight in the colosseum. They were forbidden from harming the animals and were considered to have one of the most dangerous jobs in the empire.
NXr9P TIL that in China, there is a problem with "gutter oil", which refers to recycled oil and is often oil that is actually scooped out of sewers and taken to a refinement facility. The oil then ends up sold at a discounted price, often to restaurants, and is visually very similar to new oil.