› added 11 years ago

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TIL that between 30 and 50 per cent of the global population is thought to be infected by a cat parasite known as Toxoplasma gondii. Some scientists believe that the parasite can control the brain of it’s host. A toxo-infected person is more than twice as likely to be in a car accident.

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yQMee TIL Monty Hall was born Monte Halparin. Excluded from medical school due to secret quotas restricting the number of Jewish students, he got a job in broadcasting. His station misspelled and shortened his names, making him Monty Hall. He co-created and hosted "Let's Make a Deal" for almost 30 years.
0d41M TIL: There's a rare disorder called Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis, turning people's skin into tree-like bark with wart growths due to HPV. Also known as "Tree Man Illness," the disorder is inherited when an individual inherits one copy, from each parent, of a defective gene.
GYaAj TIL the first SWAT team was created just to deal with bank robberies. However, it was so successful that the scope of SWAT use was extended to various other high-risk situations - in fact, nowadays 80% of SWAT operations are search warrants, mainly for narcotics.
pmab TIL a belief that the eye “recorded” the last image seen before death was widespread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the process of retrieving the image is called ‘Optography’.
xVxbB TIL “Black Forest Ham” comes from the Black Forest region of Germany, where it was originally coated with beef blood to give it its dark color.