› added 9 years ago

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TIL - A Man Died After His Parasitic Worm Got Cancer

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mOPy TIL that in 1669, Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus by boiling down urine and heating the residue to very high temperatures. He was trying to make gold though, and he hoped that the yellow color of urine meant there was gold in it.
0dbRy TIL that a Persian King named Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar ordered two servants to be executed for being too loud. But since it was a holy day, he delayed the execution by a day and made the servants return to their duties. The servants murdered the king in his sleep that night.
9x8p TIL that most children are extra sensitive to bitter taste, which may explain why they do not like vegetables.
69lZl TIL that mosquitoes find humans by sniffing out two specific skin chemicals, decanal and undecanal, released in our natural skin oils. These trigger a human-only scent response, making us nearly impossible for them to ignore.
4k9NJ TIL that the song "I've Been Everywhere" originally used Australian places instead of American ones