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196

TIL that the screeching noise you get from scraping your fingernails against a chalkboard is uncomfortable because it is similar to a primate warning call and triggers a fight or flight response.

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wAd7 TIL: When Simon and Garfunkel first began performing, their music was considered a joke. The words “Hello darkness, my old friend” were enough to cause an audience to break out in laughter.
GY6NN TIL Union General Jefferson C. Davis (no relation to the Confederate president) publicly murdered his superior officer in a hotel in 1862. Due to a need for experienced generals in the army, he received no punishment and served to the end of the Civil War.
N7aGJ TIL the last execution by guillotine was carried out in France in 1977, Beheading as a form of capital punishment was outlawed 4 years later
erPg TIL that Nikola Tesla predicted in 1926 that one day “We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance… we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face” through devices able to fit into a vest pocket.
41a TIL Smoking wild carrots will get you high