› added 11 months ago

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TIL the word ‘sadism’ derives from the Marquis de Sade, a contemporary of Napoleon whose views on violence scandalised French society (even during the revolutionary terror). His book 120 Days of Sodom is considered unreadable for its abhorrent graphic sexual violence

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LkXEd TIL: When scientists found harpoon tips from the 19th century in bowhead whales, they got curious about how old they were and discovered they are one of the oldest vertebrates in the world, living to be over 200 years old.
4kV5 TIL Alan Turing (the father of Computers and AI) is most cited for a paper on biology
xKK1 TIL when the 2013 government shutdown threatened the closing down of a national program giving medical attention and meals to children, John D. Arnold donated $10 million of his own money to keep it afloat
R5LKw TIL In 2001, a Yakuza mob boss named Tadamasa Goto gave a $100,000 donation to UCLA. In exchange, they gave him a liver transplant, allowing him to jump the queue. That same year, 186 people in the Los Angeles area died while waiting for a liver transplant. The FBI was also involved.
0dNAR TIL at least four actors who played the Marlboro Man in ads have died of smoking-related diseases