› added 13 years ago

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TIL that a fair-skinned person sitting on a beach in June for 15 minutes will produce nearly 20,000 IUs of Vitamin D, which is actually a hormone that increases the body’s production of antimicrobial peptides which directly and rapidly destroy the cell walls of bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

D19Lv TIL The actress that plays Mara on the Progressive Insurance commercials is a lowbrow artist, here is one of her unveilings
e0pkD TIL that after Taylor Swift began following a blog written by a mom whose young son died of cancer, she wrote and released a song about the boy that hit #1 on the charts and Taylor donated 100% of proceeds to cancer charities
jkJp TIL Family Guy’s song “Prom Night Dumpster Baby” is a reference to Melissa Drexler. In 1997 she gave birth in her high school bathroom during prom. She discarded the baby in the trash and returned to the prom. She was sentenced to 15 years for manslaughter but was released on parole after 37 months.
JYx94 TIL that to encourage population growth after WWII, the USSR imposed an extra 6% "childlessness" tax on men between 25-50 years old and married women between 20-45 years old, who did not have children.
b9Lj7 TIL Cat mummies were so plentiful in Egypt that, in the 1800s, an English company bought a load of 180,000, pulverized them and spread them on farm fields as fertilizer. Also so many baboons and ibises were mummified for the trade it likely drove them to extinction in Egypt.