› added 8 years ago

103

TIL There is a town called Shingō in Japan, which has a local legend that Jesus was never executed, and his brother took his spot. He then proceeded to flee across Siberia to Japan, to became a rice farmer.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

a8JvM TIL: the US has a law called the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) to combat bureaucracy. PRA approvals take 6-9 months
KRDQ TIL Snuffeupagus became a real character (instead of Big Bird’s imaginary friend) because of a string of high profile child sexual abuse cases. The writers didn’t want children to be afraid of telling their parents about being abused because of the fear of not being believed.
l75dK Today I learned that Sperm Whales are actually named after Sperm. Seamen opened a Sperm Whale’s noggin and thought the oily substance was...Semen.
LQ56d TIL that Cape Disappointment was so named, by John Meares in 1788, who was searching for the mouth of the Columbia River as charted on Spanish maps. He had found the river but mistakenly thought the mouth was a bay, that the Spanish maps were wrong, and called it Deception Bay.
dDL7j TIL the Titanic had an official mascot: a cat named Jenny, which gave birth to kittens one week before the ship began its maiden voyage. She lived in the ship's galley, was fed by the crew and did not survive the sinking.