› added 9 years ago

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TIL that the ancient Greek geographer Pytheas from Massalia (modern Marseille, France) sailed to Great Britain and possibly Iceland as well, and was the first scientific thinker to connect the phases of the moon with the tides

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via reddit.com

9wYKr TIL about a "remittance man," who were young British emigrants paid by their families to live outside of Britain, usually in Canada or the U.S., on the expectation that they not return home. This practice began in the 1880s and continued well into the early 20th century.
eJr5 TIL that in 1915, a man named Charles Hatfield convinced the town of San Diego that he could create rainfall using a secret mix of chemicals. The city offered to pay him $10,000 if he could end their drought, and the result!, a few days later, was the town’s worst flood of the 20th century.
0Xnv TIL:A man injected himself with snake venom during most of his adult life to build up an immunity to a array of venomous snakes. He lived to age 100, and survived a reported 172 snake bites. He donated his blood to be used in treating snake-bite victims when a suitable anti-venom was not available.
R5gl8 TIL: The Monks Who Spent Years Turning Themselves into Mummies—While Alive
nWvwB TIL that some Mormyridae (also called [african] freshwater elephant fish] have the highest brain-to-body ratio of any vertebrates. Specifically Gnathonemus petersii have a much higher one than humans. They also use complex electrical ("radio") signals to communicate with each other.