› added 5 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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kbE5 TIL there was a toilet paper shortage in the USA in 1973 caused by a joke on a talk show that convinced people to hoard toilet paper
b6DOE TIL Nikola Tesla originally expected to live to 150 years, but later changed this estimate to 135 years after he gave up alcohol due to prohibition. He regularly charged his body to high voltages to help aid longevity.
yVVlV TIL Oldest known Homo Sapiens is over 233,000 years old, 30,000+ years more than we thought
KYLb4 TIL the city of Guangzhou, China, is also known as 'City of the Five Rams', from the five stones at the old Temple of the Five Immortals, which are said to have been the sheep or goats ridden by the Taoist culture heroes credited with introducing rice cultivation to the area.
j6QNv TIL that AI models like ChatGPT don’t understand language like a real mind does. They predict the next word based on patterns in data.