› added 11 months ago

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TIL during World War Two, the Taraxacum kok-saghyz, rubber-producing dandelions, were used in the Soviet Union, the United States, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Spain as substitute for Hevea brasiliensis

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gMwLX TIL tonsil stones can cause very bad breath. Tonsil stones are the small white hard objects that we spit out sometimes and which smell like death.
A5Dl TIL the “broom method” was a method for detecting invisible flames. Firefighters would probe a room with a corn straw broom until it burst into flames, indicating the location of the fire.
VBlRQ TIL the "earworm" phenomenon (having a song stuck in your head in a loop) can occur due to the brain’s attempt to fill a gap in the auditory cortex
0d46M TIL Alexander Hamilton was the first major American politician publicly involved in a sex scandal. He had an affair with 23-year-old Maria Reynolds, whose husband was aware of the infidelity and likely orchestrated the whole thing to regularly extort blackmail money from Hamilton.
Lk7dd TIL that not only is it illegal to keep guinea pigs alone in Switzerland – it’s also illegal to force a chicken to wear glasses.