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TIL I learned that Andy Weir, author of the Martian, worked at Blizzard Entertainment to make Warcraft II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Weir
https://redd.it/1gqiuhl
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TIL that during the 2001 anthrax attacks were exacerbated by mail sorting machines that diffused the spores into the air. Attempts to clean these, again made the situation worse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Robert_Stevens
https://redd.it/1gqjvt3
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TIL Tsukuba Syndrome, a phenomenon where researchers in Tsukuba Science City, a research hub northeast of Tokyo, committed suicide in the 1970s-80s. The suicide rate was more than twice that of the general population. In late 1985, three people from the same lab took their lives within a month.
https://ja-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/%E7%AD%91%E6%B3%A2%E7%97%85?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
https://redd.it/1gqcbi5
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TIL Mike Tyson used a fake penis and his own infants urine to pass drug tests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson#Retirement
https://redd.it/1gqhzh5
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TIL that in 1962, NASA launched the Mariner 1 spacecraft to Venus, but it missed its target by over 100,000 miles. The failure was traced back to a single misplaced hyphen in the spacecraft’s software code, showing how even the smallest errors can have enormous consequences in space missions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_1
https://redd.it/1gpmacf
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TIL that a study shows wearing a mask decreased the quality of chess players’ decisions—a measure of their cognitive performance. However, the disruptive effect of masks is relatively short-lived, gradually weakening so that there is no measurable disadvantage after roughly 4 hours of play.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2206528119
https://redd.it/1gpu3s3
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TIL economists estimate that only 8 percent of the world's currency exists as physical cash
https://money.howstuffworks.com/currency.htm#:~:text=Purchases%20can%20be%20made%20through,currency%20exists%20as%20physical%20cash.
https://redd.it/1gpkni2
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TIL that 1 out of every 8 Americans has worked at a McDonalds at some point in their life.
https://www.today.com/today/amp/rcna120187
https://redd.it/1gpn7dw
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TIL researchers studying nominative determinism found that orthopedic surgeons are more likely to have the surname "Limb" than is expected by chance (Limb, Limb, Limb, & Limb, 2015)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism?wprov=sfti1
https://redd.it/1gptb5b
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TIL about the Food Disgust Test, developed by TU Zurich researchers who have discovered that people’s disgust concerning food can be broken into eight distinct scales.
https://www.idrlabs.com/food-disgust/test.php
https://redd.it/1gopmg7
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TIL of Sarah Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus", an African woman from the Khoikhoi tribe who was brought to Regency-era London to showcase her large buttocks. She was depicted in cartoons comparing behinds with Whig politician William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, who was nicknamed "broad bottom".
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35240987
https://redd.it/1gp4ek6
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TIL 33% of American women met weekly recommendations for aerobic exercise, as opposed to 43% for men.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/women-may-realize-health-benefits-regular-exercise-more-men
https://redd.it/1gp4qb7
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TIL there is no official "national identity card" in the United States. Most Americans use their driver’s license as a national identification.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_documents_in_the_United_States
https://redd.it/1goxxp9
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TIL I learned a man named Joel Burger married a woman named Ashley King in 2015.Burger King paid for their wedding.
https://www.eater.com/2015/7/20/9002643/burger-king-whopper-of-a-wedding
https://redd.it/1gnv4yg
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TIL Hetty Green, the "Witch of Wall Street," became the wealthiest woman of the early 20th century, amassing a $100M fortune (~$2.7B today) by investing in real estate, railroads, and mortgages. Green was also a miser who wore the same black dress daily, ate only oatmeal, and lived in cheap housing.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/peculiar-story-hetty-green-aka-witch-wall-street-180967258/
https://redd.it/1gnzhfi
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TIL of Savitri Devi, a french born greek-italian hindu and ardent nazi who tried to combine hinduism and nazism and proclaimed Hitler to be an avatar of Vishnu. She was also an animals rights activist who believed that people who don't respect animals and nature "should be executed"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitri_Devi
https://redd.it/1gqp1ap
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TIL as the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto mounted, the inhabitants knew they would not survive. A team of historians, writers, rabbis, and social workers created a secret cache of documents to record their way of life. 2/3 of the cache survived the war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringelblum_Archive
https://redd.it/1gqm0b6
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TIL: In the 1920s there was a mob hitman called Willie "Two-Knife" Altieri who was noted to have soft womanly hands, used his knives to clean his fingernails, and slept with them. He killed dozens of rival gangsters before disappearing in 1928 after Al Capone killed his boss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_%22Two-Knife%22_Altieri
https://redd.it/1gqmzbh
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TIL while Hitler was signing autographs at the 1936 summer olympics in Berlin, his face was grabbed and forcefully kissed by an American woman. This act reportedly enraged him, leading to the dismissal and demotion of most of his security for failing to stop a middle aged woman from advancing on him
https://www.onthisday.com/articles/a-kiss-for-adolf-hitler
https://redd.it/1gqkvdi
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TIL Amanita phalloides (also known as death cap) is the most poisonous of all known mushrooms. It is estimated that as little as half a mushroom contains enough toxin to kill an adult human. It is also the deadliest mushroom worldwide, responsible for 90% of mushroom-related fatalities every year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides
https://redd.it/1gpw9o3
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TIL that in 1835, Richard Lawrence attempted to assassinate President Andrew Jackson, marking the first such attempt on a sitting U.S. president. Lawrence's two pistols both misfired, allowing Jackson who was 67 at the time to respond by beating him with his cane until he was restrained.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson#Assassination_attempt
https://redd.it/1gpip1q
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TIL Japan railway platforms saw a 84 percent decrease in suicides at stations after they installed blue lights.
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/how-blue-lights-on-train-platforms-combat-tokyos-suicide-epidemic
https://redd.it/1gpinj4
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TIL the 'Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills' or Pretty Boy Floyd was a thief in the 1930's who was touted as a hero for destroying mortgage documents whenever he robbed a bank. His funeral had over 20,000 people attend to pay their respects.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Boy_Floyd
https://redd.it/1gptos1
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TIL that over 50% of all suicides are associated with alcohol/other drug dependences
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1932152/
https://redd.it/1goxgrn
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TIL that the first recorded attempt at flight was made by a monk named Eilmer of Malmesbury in 1010. Using wings attached to his arms, he jumped from a tower and flew for a short distance before crashing. This experiment predates the Wright brothers by nearly 900 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilmer_of_Malmesbury
https://redd.it/1goqops
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TIL The 80 year old Archbishop of Canterbury refused to delegate Edward VII's coronation despite his ailing health. His speech was printed in gigantic letters so he could see it, he couldn't get back up after kneeling, he placed the crown backwards and yelled "go away!" when asked if he was ok
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Edward_VII_and_Alexandra#The_service
https://redd.it/1gp14dc
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TIL: There is a figure known as the "unluckiest man in Pompeii". In 2018, archaeologists uncovered his skeleton and a rock where his head should've been, he got struck by the rock and his skull was found in a tunnel a distance away.
https://www.pompeiitours.it/blog/the-story-of-the-unluckiest-man-in-pompeii/#:~:text=Named%20the%20world's%20unluckiest%20man,his%20head%20should've%20been.
https://redd.it/1goznkd
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TIL Al Capone, America’s most notorious gangster sponsored the charity that served up three hot meals a day to thousands of the unemployed—no questions asked.
https://www.history.com/news/al-capone-great-depression-soup-kitchen
https://redd.it/1goy0pb
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TIL about the theory that myxosporeans, A microscopic parasite, may have originally been a cancer that evolved into it's own independent species.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-new-species-evolve-from-cancers-maybe-heres-how-20190819/
https://redd.it/1go4bd5
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TIL Microsoft released the AI chatbot Tay (short for "Thinking About You"), designed to mimic a 19-year-old American, on March 23, 2016. It became a PR disaster when it learned offensive language from trolls, causing Microsoft to shut it down after just 16 hours and sparking debates on AI ethics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_(chatbot)
https://redd.it/1go8khs
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