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TIL: It has been proposed that Eva Perón may have been given a prefrontal lobotomy in the last months of her life "to relieve the pain, agitation and anxiety she suffered in the final months of her illness"
https://thejns.org/focus/view/journals/neurosurg-focus/39/1/article-pE12.xml
https://redd.it/1h6hb8q
@r_til
TIL the Amazon river dumps so much fresh water into the Atlantic that it is possible to drink from the surface for about 200 mile offshore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River?repost#Drainage_area
https://redd.it/1h69zlg
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TIL Bats live upto 40 years of age. When adjusted for size only 19 species of mammals live longer than humans. 18 of these species are bats.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03128-0
https://redd.it/1h6jnaj
@r_til
TIL "All I Want for Christmas is You" by itself makes Mariah Carey $2.5 million each year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_I_Want_for_Christmas_Is_You#Lawsuit
https://redd.it/1h6qj3m
@r_til
TIL a bank clerk dozed off with his finger on the keyboard and accidentally transferred 222,222,222.22 euros instead of 64.20 euros. His supervisor did not notice the error, approved the transaction, and was fired. The next year, a German labour court ruled the supervisor was unfairly dismissed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22850791
https://redd.it/1h6thy2
@r_til
TIL: Santa Claus originally wore a green suit.
https://oakwoodhomes.lifesycle.co.uk/blogs/did-you-know-father-christmas-originally-wore-a-green-suit
https://redd.it/1h5t2l2
@r_til
TIL about the Danish Protest Pig, a breed created in the early 1900s by Danes under Prussian rule. Unable to display their red-and-white national flag, they bred pigs with a similar color pattern as a symbolic act of rebellion. The breed is now recognized as a cultural symbol of resistance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husum_Red_Pied
https://redd.it/1h5sdr1
@r_til
TIL obese drivers are 80 percent more likely to die in a car accident than drivers who are not overweight
https://news.virginia.edu/content/why-do-women-and-obese-passengers-suffer-worst-car-crash-injuries
https://redd.it/1h6105m
@r_til
TIL Chandra Kumari Gurung, a Nepalese woman, spent six years in a mental hospital after being mistakenly identified as a mental patient due to her inability to speak Korean.
https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5147
https://redd.it/1h5ks2o
@r_til
TIL that actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Rear Window) refused to ever appear on The Tonight Show because Johnny Carson often told fat jokes about him, and Burr would feel compelled to confront Carson about "the bad jokes he does about everybody who can't fight back because they aren't there."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Burr#Physical_characteristics
https://redd.it/1h5uvc4
@r_til
TIL at least 1/3 of the Great Barrier Reef is already bleached
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/17/great-barrier-reef-extreme-coral-bleaching
https://redd.it/1h558tf
@r_til
TIL that during World War I, a German armed merchant cruiser, disguised as the British ocean liner HMS Carmania, was unexpectedly confronted and sunk by the real HMS Carmania in a head-to-head clash.
https://explorethearchive.com/the-time-two-luxurious-ocean-liners-fought-an-intense-naval-battle
https://redd.it/1h5379u
@r_til
TIL Hulu removed a Golden Girls episode in 2020 after a scene where Blanche and Rose, wearing mud masks, joke, “We’re not black,” during a plot about Dorothy’s son marrying a Black woman. Though not blackface, the scene was misinterpreted. The episode was restored in 2023 after a review of context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Girls
https://redd.it/1h58mo9
@r_til
TIL that penis enlargement methods go back thousands of years. Ancient Greeks and Indians wrote about various dubious methods. The Topinamá tribe in Brazil in the 1500s let poisonous snakes bite their penises. Penis pumps are not a modern invention, either.
https://theconversation.com/jelqing-the-latest-in-a-long-history-of-attempts-to-enlarge-the-male-member-222634
https://redd.it/1h4tnr8
@r_til
TIL Alexander the Great had a Hindu Guru who accompanied his army on their return to Persia. After he died via self immolation the army held a drinking contest in his honor, resulting in 42 people dying from alcohol poisoning, including the winner, who drank 13 litres of unmixed wine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalanos
https://redd.it/1h4xm5p
@r_til
TIL "pouring one out for the homies" is an ancient tradition that dates back to 2500 BC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libation
https://redd.it/1h6jwm8
@r_til
TIL that in 2009, a campaign succeeded in making Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name' the Christmas number 1 best-selling single in the UK after the public grew tired of X Factor winners topping the chart every year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8423340.stm
https://redd.it/1h6d07j
@r_til
TIL - About fluoroantimonic acid, it's the world's strongest acid and trillions of times more acidic than sulfuric acid
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroantimonic_acid
https://redd.it/1h6obqw
@r_til
TIL that many American Football Stadiums have Sniper Nests built into them for SWAT team members during games and events.
https://www.bosshunting.com.au/sport/superbowl-snipers-nest/
https://redd.it/1h6idu4
@r_til
TIL Sir Paul Nurse, English geneticist and Nobel Prize winner, had his application for a US green card rejected due to the short-form UK birth certificate which he submitted not naming his parents. When he applied for a full birth certificate he discovered that his sister was actually his mother.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Nurse#Early_life_and_education
https://redd.it/1h6nvr5
@r_til
TIL, from the 90s until 2004, the shortest commercial flight in the US was 13 minutes - and flew from Houston to Houston
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/columnists/hoffman/article/Ellington-offered-best-connection-10623747.php
https://redd.it/1h5xild
@r_til
TIL George Lucas originally envisioned Indiana Jones as a nightclub going womanizer. But his writing partner nixed that and suggested making the Ark of the Covenant as the goal of Indiana's quest as his hematologist told him about it. Spielberg agreed to direct only after losing out on James Bond.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiders_of_the_Lost_Ark
https://redd.it/1h5uw5p
@r_til
TIL a town in Colorado had an unelected mayor serve for over 50 years. He was appointed mayor pro tem because the then-mayor didn't want to sign liquor licenses, and inherited the post when the mayor died. The town considered doing an election in 1974, but it was too expensive.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/virgil-harms-paoli-mayor-50-years_n_1144217
https://redd.it/1h5p207
@r_til
TIL that, early in the AIDS epidemic, an executive of the company that made a popular weight loss drug named 'AYDS' was quoted as saying "The product has been around for 45 years. Let the disease change its name."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayds#Relations_with_AIDS
https://redd.it/1h5oohs
@r_til
TIL FBI agent John O’Neill, who left his federal position because his attempts to warn of an imminent al-Qaeda attack on U.S. soil in early 2001 were ignored, got hired as the WTC chief of security three weeks before 9/11 and was killed in the attack.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/script.html
https://redd.it/1h5o1hf
@r_til
TIL - About 2-Nonenal, this is the chemical that gives old people there characteristic smell
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/2-Nonenal
https://redd.it/1h5097m
@r_til
TIL that over 700 large ships were lost between 2014 and 2023. This is a major decrease from the 1990s where over 200 vessels were lost per year.
https://commercial.allianz.com/news-and-insights/reports/shipping-safety.html
https://redd.it/1h4y8f0
@r_til
TIL that in the first Polish-language encyclopedia, the definition of Horse was: "Everyone can see what a Horse is"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowe_Ateny
https://redd.it/1h4uz36
@r_til
TIL that in 2020, Pakistan International Airlines was banned from flying in Europe and the United States after an investigation found that at least a fourth of all pilots' licences issued in Pakistan were not genuine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_International_Airlines#Pilot_licensing_scandal
https://redd.it/1h4w84q
@r_til
TIL that up to half of the current Cherokee nation can trace their lineage to a single Scottish fur trader who married into the tribe in the early 1700's.
https://clancarrutherssociety.org/2019/02/23/clan-carruthers-the-scots-and-the-american-indian/#:~:text=The%20Scots%20were%20so%20compatible,their%20husbands%20their%20tribal%20languages
https://redd.it/1h552q9
@r_til