› added 7 years ago

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TIL 2,4-dinitrophenol, a widely used chemical in industry, is also a powerful weight loss agent with severe side effects. In some people, it can burn food energy so fast that their body isn’t able to expel the heat quickly enough, thus causing them to die by literally burning from the inside out.

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QJaKk TIL A study of robot aesthetics has found non-human-like machines gather positive emotional responses from viewers, while humanoid objects that imperfectly resemble human beings produces feelings of eeriness and revulsion in observers. This dip in positive responses is called the Uncanny Valley.
Jn8k TIL that Columbia Records had to force the Beastie Boys to rename their album License to Ill. The original album name: “Don’t Be a Faggot”
R57e9 TIL the "Dade" in Miami-Dade county refers to Major Francis Dade who led 110 men to forcibly remove the Seminoles Indians from Florida in 1836 but was the first man killed in an ambush by Chief Miccanopa. The battle was so decisive that the Seminoles only lost 3 men compared to the 108 lost by Dade.
0jeA TIL a man was once accidentally released from prison 90 years early due to clerical error. He then started building his life by getting a job, getting married, having kids, coaching youth soccer, being active in his church. Authorities realized the mistake 6 years later and sent him back to prison.
X01OP TIL that the names "Arctic" and "Antarctic" comes from the Greek arktos, “bear,” because the constellation Ursa Major, “the greater she-bear” (also known as the Big Dipper), is always visible in the northern polar sky. “Antarctic,” then, means “opposite the bear.”