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TIL Scrooge's famous cry for the poor to die and thereby 'decrease the surplus population' was most likely a reference to Thomas Malthus who had written a generation before about the economic dangers of a lack of war, plague and famine.

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vPGl4 TIL There is an unwritten rule of the use of adjectives which native English speakers follow, but don't realize it: “Adjectives in English absolutely have to be written in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun.”
xVpk TIL that when Niagara Falls stopped flowing on its own in 1848, The Maid of the Mist’s owner used explosives to blast out troublesome rocks that had endangered the boats.
8ewg8 TIL that in the 1980s, Tom Fogerty, rhythm guitarist for Creedence Clearwater Revival, underwent back surgery, and was given a blood transfusion that was not screened for HIV causing him to become infected with the virus. He later contracted AIDS and died from tuberculosis.
xYB0 TIL That you hallucinate when you are about to fall asleep
lo5JA TIL that in 2013 a petition requesting that the United States Government build a Death Star reached 25,000 signatures, the threshold requiring the White House office to make a response. One part of the response was, "The Administration does not support blowing up planets."