› added 12 years ago

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TIL that the Pentagon was designed in a way that makes it possible to go from any one point to another within seven minutes.

epDQL TIL that during World War 2, aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and general Charles De Gaulle despised each other, causing his works to be banned in both Free France and Vichy France. As a result, The Little Prince was first published in the United States, and only was published in France after WW2.
B5ny TIL that SSRI antidepressants (Zoloft, Lexapro, Prozac, etc.) actually make certain areas of your brain bigger that are associated with positive self-thought. These areas are small in a lot of people with depression and anxiety
VBL0Z TIL of Luckner Cambronne a Haitian militia leader under Francois Duvalier, who became known as the Vampire of the Caribbean for selling 1,600 gallons of blood plasma a month, from his victims to the United States.
16BAD TIL That the golden record on each of the Voyager space craft carries a recording of someone saying "Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time." in Amoy, a dialect of Chinese, along with a diagram showing Earth's exact location.
LQma9 TIL Until 1958 Popes were embalmed by having all their organs removed. Pious XII was against this so a novel method was used: it went so bad that his body started rapidly decaying while still in public view and the ceremony was canceled after the chemical reactions made the swiss guards fall ill