› added 4 months ago

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TIL Nicaragua was a popular choice for a US canal at the start of the 20th century, but narrowly lost out to Panama due to, among other reasons, a stamp showing a violently exploding Nicaraguan volcano being used as propaganda.

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5MPk TIL: Back in the ’60s, the Beatles wanted to make a movie adaptation of Lord of the Rings, with Stanley Kubrick directing, but Tolkien killed the project.
wXNM TIL that acid in the 60s was so much stronger that you would have to eat 7.8 tabs of today’s acid to have a similar experience.
kZ6W TIL that buying the Guy Fawkes “Anonymous” mask pays royalties to Time Warner, a nemesis of piracy.
e0x7g TIL a woman in 1984 was found to be able to switch on/off the two hemispheres of her brain at will. This resulted in being able to focus her efforts at relaxing/socializing/sexual or performing logical tasks such as work/math/writing.
PaZO TIL For Swedish males, having a name with a Y in the end statistically more than doubles your chances of ending up in prison, compared to most common names [PDF]