› added 12 years ago

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TIL That in the 1920s a russian surgeon would implant thin slices of monkey testicles into the scrotum of human patients in an attempt to improve their sex drive.

eJNk TIL In Kurt Cobain’s suicide note, he quoted a Neil Young song saying “It’s better to burn out than fade away”. Neil Young said that “it fucked with me” and he had actually been trying to get in touch with Cobain around when his suicide happened, in order to offer encouragement.
BrK1K TIL I learned the source of the internet myth that Mr. Rogers was a sniper: The screenwriters of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood say they discovered in their research that there was another Fred Rogers who was a sharpshooter for the Marines, and his self-promotion confused a lot of people online
wjxJ TIL Alexander Graham Bell took credit for inventing the phone, but Antonio Meucci invented it 5 years earlier… A problem with is patent gave Bell the chance to claim the invention
Z8rko TIL about the mysterious worldwide epidemic of Encephalitis lethargica. The disease attacks the brain, leaving some victims in a statue-like condition, speechless and motionless. Between 1915 and 1926, 500,000 dead or incapacitated from it. It disappeared as mysteriously as it came in to the world.
6rRl TIL that in some cultures children were intentionally given names with unfavourable meanings like ‘ugly’ and 'crippled’, as it was thought that this would make them less desirable to child-stealing demons.