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TIL starting in the 1960s, the American Heart Association advised the public to eat less saturated fat and switch to vegetable oils for a “healthy heart.” The American Heart Association was founded in part by the makers of Crisco.

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xgkw TIL Researchers report that nepetalactone, the essential oil in catnip that gives the plant its characteristic odor, is about ten times more effective at repelling mosquitoes than DEET — the compound used in most commercial insect repellents.
p8QrZ TIL The life expectancy for an 80-year-old ranges from 8 to 10 years in high-income countries but is only 4,5 years for 90-year-olds. For nonagenarians being able to rise from a chair without using hands, the average remaining lifespan was 1.6 to 1.7 times as high as that for men and women
7wAr TIL the descendants of black slaves owned by the Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma are still battling with the tribal leadership in a fight to be recognized as full and legitimate members of the tribe, after about 25,000 were disenfranchised in the early 1980s.
9dNB TIL Yahoo gave the Chinese government access to the e-mail of two pro-democracy journalists who were subsequently imprisoned for 10 years for “incitement to subvert state power”.
d8g6r TIL In 1943 German student Sophie Scholl was sentenced to death for her role in the White Rose non-violent resistence group. The entire process of being taken from her cell to being executed by guillotine was recorded as having taken 48 seconds.