› added 11 years ago

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TIL that a man lost about 50%-75% of his brain to hydrocephalus (water on the brian) but still led a normal life. They believe the fluid filled so slowly over his life that the brain remapped itself to function despite the loss of mass.

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via reddit.com

Yw67 TIL that in 1970 President Nixon had the White House guards uniform redesigned to be more fancy. They received much criticism, such as looking “like a palace guard of toy soldiers” and did not last long. They were later sold to the Meriden-Cleghorn High School Marching Band in Iowa.
4EQX TIL after the Haiti earthquake the “Feed The Children” website claimed that the charity was “providing medical relief for 12,000 people”. In reality they sent a total of three doctors, and two weeks after the eartquake it emerged that they had fed zero people.
78L5p TIL that In the witches scene in MacBeth where they describe a potion needing "eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog" they're really referring to common plants. Respectively: mustard seed, buttercup, holly leaves, and hounds tongue.
yQZy8 TIL that ~95% of the material for the set on Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions was salvaged and reused, some going towards companies who build housing for low-income families.
5YabQ TIL that the British Medical Journal does an annual Christmas Issue, where they publish research-quality but satirical articles, like a randomized trial on the effectiveness of parachutes, or investigating the driving behaviors of different physician specialties