› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Christopher Guest (of Spinal Tap and Best in Show fame) is from a long line of a British aristocrats. He is a member of the House of Lords and his official title is The Right Honorable Lord Hayden-Guest

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9pZ6 TIL men in switzerland are required to keep the firearms they are issued during military service at home after they leave the military so as to prevent home break ins and have the countries men ready to mobilize in the event of a threat.
kOxZe TIL that the steel used in MRI machines, geiger counters and other radiation detecting gear is primarily sourced from German WWI battleships, scuttled in Scapa Flow in 1919 because the steel was made before nuclear bombs were detonated, thus contaminating the air with radionuclides in 1945.
5VgWP TIL of the Frog Test, a pregnancy test where a woman’s urine was injected into a frog, and if it started ovulating, the woman was pregnant. It was used in the 1940s-60s and was surprisingly accurate.
ne9Md TIL a man in 2002 found a way to crack the lottery in the US state of Michigan using math and probability. He figured out that if he bought a certain amount of tickets that he would certainly make a profit. He and his wife Marge ended up making millions of dollars.
P1rVg TIL of brain stimulation reward, manually stimulating specific parts of the brain to elicit pleasure and happiness. A volunteer subject in 1986 spent days doing nothing but self-stimulate. She ignored her family and personal hygiene and she developed an open sore on her finger from using the device.