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TIL The Hindu god Shiva has long been linked to cannabis. Shiva came and drank the poison created by the cosmic ocean, but over time it made him so hot he needed to be cooled down. Marijuana is supposed to be a coolant – so it is said that Shiva smokes weed to keep his body temperature down.

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E19WV TIL Russian scientist Anatoli Bugorski was working on the Synchrotron U-70, the largest Soviet particle accelerator in 1978. A proton beam measuring about 200,000 rads entered his skull, and 300,000 rads when it exited. Due to nerve destruction, the left half of his face was frozen and doesn’t age.
oBnrR TIL an American lieutenant during World War II, realizing his position was being overrun by enemy troops, called in an artillery barrage on himself. When U.S. troops managed a counterattack later that day they found the lieutenant’s body along with those of about a hundred German soldiers.
NRb1 TIL in the UK and Ireland, one can sign up for an inexpensive, mutually beneficial arrangement for owners who need minders for their dogs, and dogless folk, who love dogs but prefer to love them in a part-time sort of way.
N1v1 TIL that Hugh Hefner is credited for breaking the color barrier in stand up comedy when he hired African American comedian Dick Gregory to perform at the Playboy Club in Chicago.
wNVP TIL Charles Darwin’s cousin invented the dog whistle, meteorology, forensic fingerprinting, mathematical correlation, the concept of “eugenics” and “nature vs nurture”, and the concept of inherited intelligence, with an estimated IQ of 200.