› added 1 year ago

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TIL: Doctors used to blow tobacco smoke up your butt to cure cold, drowsiness, save people from drowning, headaches, etc. An early example was described in 1686 which describes shoving a pipe in and then repeatedly pumping in smoke. Early critics were worried it made the brain "sooty".

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6EvkZ TIL Purdue sales reps were taught to sell Oxycontin as less addictive than competitors, and addiction symptoms whilst on the pill was "psuedoaddiction" and to tell doctors that the fix for these symptoms was to push higher dosage pills to cure this.
8bbV TIL that the smell when it first starts raining is called Petrichor. It is a combination of plant oils and the chemical Geosin. New research has shown that when the rain drops hit the ground they trap tiny air bubbles, which then shoot upwards creating an aerosol.
vPjZ4 TIL that Double Indemnity director Billy Wilder was so frustrated with his film not winning any of its 7 Oscar nominations, that he purposely tripped Best Director winner Leo McCarey at the 1945 Academy Awards as McCarey went to accept his award
jNlEv TIL that there is an alive 'castrato'. Javier Medina was chemically castrated due to leukemia at the age of 8 years, later in life he began his musical formation in choirs becoming the first castrato the the world has heard in almost a century.
wLmDP TIL on Nov. 26, 1977 a television station in southern England had their broadcast hijacked by an entity referring to itself as Vrillon of the Ashtar Galactic Command who disrupted regular programming to give a six-minute message about humanity's future. The mystery has never been solved.