› added 12 years ago

99

TIL Jon Stewart’s brother Larry is the COO of the New York Stock Exchange

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v1pvL TIL that when Napoleon Bonaparte met Charles-Henri Sanson, the French executioner who killed nearly 3000 people in his career, he asked him how he could sleep at night. Sanson joked: "If kings, emperors, dictators can sleep well, why shouldn't an executioner?"
1K7r TIL Residents of the US, particularly those living near the Mexican border, now routinely cross the border into Mexico for medical care. Mexican dentists often charge 20 to 25 percent of U.S. prices, while other procedures typically cost a third what they would cost in the US
V9x4 TIL that Alan Turing, the man who broke the enigma code during WWII, is estimated to have shortened the war by over two years, and to have saved over 14 million lives. He was later charged for his homosexuality and was forced to undergo chemical castration.
won5J TIL that the earliest form of sushi originated on the Mekong River (parts of Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam) between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. To prevent the fish spoiling in the heat they were gutted packed with glutinous rice and stored in barrels. It spread to China and then Japan.
w5o6 TIL running a weak electric current through your brain can improve concentration and performance (in trials it boosted the speed with which wannabe snipers could detect a threat by a factor of 2.3)