› added 9 years ago

824

TIL the Voltaire quote co-opted by the far-right movement, “to learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise” is actually a false quote attributed to Voltaire, and was likely first used by White Supremacist Kevin Strom in 1993, 215 years after Voltaire’s death.

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LkOAm TIL While attacking a series of machine gun nests during WW2, Daniel Inouye had most his right arm shot off while arming a grenade. He pried the grenade out of his severed hand and destroyed a bunker with it before finishing the last resistance in the bunker with a one-handed Tommy gun burst.
yLPp TIL Sleep is the only time the brain has to catch its breath. If it doesn’t, it may drown in its own biological debris–everything from toxic free radicals produced by hard-working fuel cells to spent molecules that are now useless
b9kyQ TIL in Ontario, anyone living within 50km of a nuclear plant can order free iodine tablets for use in the event of a nuclear accident. Anyone within 10km receives them by mail automatically.
DmvP TIL that at midnight on Dec 30th, 1899, a ship positioned itself at the intersection of the date line and equator, such that the bow and stern occupied different seasons, hemispheres, days, years, and centuries. For the ship, Dec 31st never occurred.
78AJP TIL about Edward Dando, notorious glutton and dine-and-dasher in 1800's Britain, who would eat dozens of oysters, not pay, go to jail, get released, and promptly do it again