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TIL from the 1970s to 1990s, the South African apartheid government conducted "Project Coast," a program where they investigated using recreational drugs, snake venom, pheromones, bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, pesticides, poisons, and more as biological weapons for both war and crowd control.

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NXeVQ TIL about Medicine Shows which were touring acts that peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines between entertainments like freak shows, flea circuses, musical acts, magic tricks and story telling.
vPp4L TIL that in 1958, Burma-Shave offered a "free trip to Mars" for sending in 900 empty jars. A grocery store manager, Arliss French, took it literally and collected all 900. To save face, Burma-Shave sent him, fully dressed as an astronaut, to Moers, Germany (of which they felt was pronounced Mars).
N7aQM TIL Quantum Immortality is a thought experiment according to which self conscious beings cannot experience death. According to the experiment, the self conscious being’s mind would just switch to another reality in which its death did not occur.
XkYP TIL that on St Patrick’s day 1990 two thieves dressed as Boston Police stole artwork valued at approximately $500 million from Boston’s Gardner Museum. The crime is unsolved and remains the largest property crime in US history.
9oZQ TIL Louisiana is the prison capital of the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran’s, 13 times China’s, 20 times Germany’s and is the only US state with an annual average murder rate over twice the national average.