› added 11 years ago

80

TIL in 1917, staged photos that two little girls had taken of themselves w/ cardboard-cut-outs of magical fairies and gnomes were able to convince ‘Sherlock Holmes’ author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that he had discovered conclusive evidence for the supernatural.

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kJ1V7 TIL that, similarly to the soapy cilantro taste gene, some people have a genetic predisposition that prevents them from smelling “asparagus urine.”
Zppa4 TIL Zeno of Citium, the founder of stoicism, wrote his own version of The Republic in response to Plato's. The work has not survived, but it depicted a stoic utopia based on the principles of asceticism.
vPd17 TIL about "Theft by Conversion", which is a charge in some (or all) states where the suspect has taken something they were temporarily, and/or for a specific purpose, given, and kept possession of it beyond the agreed upon conditions. Example: Your friend loans you his car for a day and you keep it.
vPPWD TIL Our Sun can make a total of 80 different elements: helium and then everything from carbon through polonium, but nothing heavier. For that, you need a supernova or a neutron star collision. Of all the types of naturally occurring elements here on Earth, the Sun can make about 90% of them.
VB5O8 TIL that during WWII the British government banned banana imports, leading to a complete absence of the fruit in the UK. This scarcity led to the creation of "mock banana", a substitute made from boiled and mashed parsnips mixed with sugar and banana flavoring.