› added 7 years ago

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TIL In 1956 writer Harper Lee received an envelope from family and friends with a year’s salary in it. It read “You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.” She wrote To kill a Mockingbird which won the Pulitzer prize and sold over 30 million copies worldwide

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Y7G1v TIL that over 50% of all suicides are associated with alcohol/other drug dependences
adJZ TIL that there is a small group of Filipino Marines living about a rusting grounded Ship in the middle of the South China Sea, they are the only thing that stands between ever pressing Chinese Fishing and Warship vessels from De facto control of the Area.
p8RY4 TIL a Scottish man fasted for 382 days, living on vitamin supplements and non-caloric beverages. He was morbidly obese, weighing 456 pounds, and lost 276 pounds. The fast was monitored by doctors, who detected no ill-effects. He never regained the weight. It was the longest recorded fast in history.
BrgDr TIL gender can now be determined from the concentration of amino acids in a fingerprint (levels are significantly higher in the sweat of women than that of men). The testing method can be performed at the crime scene and works in a manner similar to pregnancy strips or glucose meters.
4knGN TIL, According to legend, a round of Golf has 18 holes because there are 18 shots in a fifth of alcohol