› added 6 years ago

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TIL about an Australian Aboriginal language that uses direction (north, south, east, west) instead of left and right; the standard greeting is "where are you going?" to keep everyone completely oriented.

OGJm6 TIL about the 2010 Filair Let L-410 crash, caused by a crocodile that was smuggled on board. It got loose and caused a panic, affecting the weight of the aircraft as all on board ran towards the cockpit. The croc survived the crash (along with one person) but was killed by a machete shortly after
v1wXj TIL of the ‘Mass-Observation Diarists’ who were hundreds of volunteers in the U.K. during WWII who made regular diary entries. They wrote about the intimate details of their lives as well as their thoughts and feelings about the world around them. The result was an intimate portrait of British life.
QNbwa TIL that when determining the atomic mass of each chemical elements, the English chemist William Prout deduced that the building block of the atom is primarily the atom of Hydrogen. Though Prout’s hypothesis was not entirely accurate, because atom's building block is the proton.
loAEK TIL that in 1800s America, popcorn was used as a breakfast food with it being mixed with milk and sweetener similar to cereal.
9wOKQ TIL about author of the hymn " Amazing Grace " had a rather colorful vocabulary. During his tenure as a sailor, he was reprimanded on several occasions for using language that was deemed inappropriate by the captain, and for creating new words that were deemed to be even more offensive.