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TIL Costa Rica celebrates 71yrs with no military today, identifies teachers as its best defense

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DBjp TIL the Civil War had Nazi-like prison camps. In one of the worst, a one legged man, trying to escape being victimized by other prisoners, was shot in the face and chest, only to lay outside the prison walls suffering until he died the next day.
g9y8 TIL It takes a native English speaker 23-24 weeks to become proficient in Spanish but 88 weeks to become proficient in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, or Korean.
76nZ TIL Jean-Claude Romand pretended to work for the World Health Organization, fooling friends and family for 18 years. Instead of working, he hid in hotels to study medicine and maps of countries he claimed to visit. When afraid of being exposed, he killed his entire family and burned down his house.
OoJJY TIL that China produces 42% of the world's cigarettes. Nearly 60% of male Chinese doctors are smokers. In most of the country smoking is considered socially acceptable anywhere at any time, even if it is technically illegal.
GAJw7 TIL that birds control the shape of their wings during flight using hook-shaped microstructures in their feathers to prevent them spreading too far apart. The detachment of the hooks is noisy, so they are missing from silent fliers such as barn owls.