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TIL the Purple Earth Hypothesis proposes that the Earth's surface biosphere may have appeared purple in the past due to photosynthesis at the time being based on simpler retinal instead of more complex chlorophyll

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YpEKA TIL According to a study's preliminary results, when shopping, consumers respond rationally for the first 23 minutes, then they begin to think with the emotional part of their brain. After 40 minutes, the brain becomes tired and effectively shuts down, ceasing to form rational thoughts altogether.
nWXKB TIL: Pope Gregory IX issued a Papal Bull in the 11th Century declaring that cats bore Satan’s spirit. Huge numbers of cats were killed throughout Europe, an indirect cause of the Bubonic plague spread by fleas on rats.
D90p TIL McDonald’s employees web site advises returning holiday gifts to get out of debt, breaking food into smaller pieces to feel full, and not to complain because it raises stress. Oh, and it also advises to take at least two vacations a year.
R7R89 TIL that Buddy Holly's wife, Maria Elena, did not attend his funeral and has never visited his grave site. She blames herself for his passing and said that had she gone on tour with him (she stayed home as she was pregnant), Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane.
aw1yJ TIL China's "Lost Army." Following the Chinese Civil War, a KMT army fled into Burma and continued to fight the CCP from there. To fund their war, they seized a Burmese province and turned it into narco-state. Some of these soldiers eventually formed some of Southeast Asia's first drug syndicates.