› added 7 years ago

171

TIL the full translated name of Bangkok is “City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra’s behest”. It is the longest name for a city.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

9KQm TIL of a jobless Irish lady who won a lotto jackpot of $46m. She now plans to donate all but $2m to her town and to give local people a chance. She said “I know what it’s like to have nothing …that’s why I’m giving it away - I can’t miss what I never had.”
E4mW TIL NASA’s Curiosity rover is powered by a nuclear generator that outputs 110 watts, barely enough to power a ceiling fan.
7gNL TIL that Canola is made from Rapeseed. Wanting to avoid the negative connotation of the word ‘rape’ the Rapeseed Association of Canada coined the new name from Canada (Can) and Oil (Ola).
5eAk TIL Left-handed people are often excluded from studies of how the brain works. This means that the results of those studies may not apply to ~10% of the population.
4LN5 TIL the State Hermitage Museum in Russia has a team of cats that prowl the museum to protect the artwork against rodents. The cats even carry a passport with a photo.