Today

16EoV TIL 7-Eleven trademarked the term “brain-freeze”
GA6KQ TIL that western philosophy owes a great debt to Arabic philosophers, because by the Middle Ages, many original Ancient Greek texts were lost, and medieval philosophers were only able to access the texts using the translations of earlier Islamic Golden Age philosophers.
pYlNe TIL It's legal to stream but not download or possess pornography in Singapore
J1VK8 TIL Japan has a long-running internet meme about “The Gunma Empire,” (グンマー帝国) which treats one of its rural prefectures Gunma (essentially the West Virginia of Japan) like a hidden, dangerous country that requires a visa to enter.
vPkbB TIL that Worcestershire sauce was invented because John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, founders of Lea & Perrins were requested by the ex-Governor of Bengal, Lord Sandys to recreate something he tasted during his time there. The founders never visited India.
DQWKP TIL That the famous "Hillary Step" at the top of Mount Everest is no longer there. It was the last obstacle to the Summit. It is now an easier 45 degree slope instead of a vertical wall.
m1ePE TIL: The Upshot–Knothole Grable exercise was the only time a live nuclear artillery shell was fired
yVaAl TIL Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky was the illegitimate son of Catherine the great who started a house fire to hide his birth; his son Aleksey Alekseyevich Bobrinsky founded the first sugar refinery in the Russian Empire and financed some of the first rail lines in the Empire.
AN5Ko TIL pineapple’s mouth-tingle is a defense trick: tiny needle-like crystals (raphides) jab your tissue while the enzyme bromelain breaks down proteins. Studies suggest this one-two punch evolved to ward off herbivores.
QNBR9 TIL Seagulls actually prey on live whales by picking out pieces of flesh
b6x44 TIL that in 1968, Richard Nixon feared that there would be a breakthrough in the Paris Peace Talks between North and South Vietnam, resulting in the war ending and damaging his campaign. Nixon dispatched an aide to tell the South Vietnamese to withdraw from the talks and prolong the war
LQPxv TIL that in 1986, former Australian PM Malcolm Fraser was robbed of his pants and wallet while drugged in a Memphis, TN hotel