› added 12 years ago

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TIL that comedian Andy Kauffman would threaten to read passages from The Great Gatsby if hecklers got too rowdy. In addition to often following through, he would then ask if the audience wanted to hear a record instead; the record was always of him reading from where he left off.

9Y50G TIL about Henri Charrière. Sentenced to life in prison for a murder he didn't commit, he proceeded to escape from 9 different maximum security prisons, and was later pardoned.
wo7kY TIL that part of the reason public executions were seen as ineffective in deterring crime was because it was common for pickpocketers to take advantage of the giant crowds of people watching the execution and steal from them.
a8EAL TIL that while men and women have the same average IQ, men’s IQ curve has a wider distribution while women have a narrower distribution. So men tend to have more geniuses and more idiots while women tend to be closer to the average.
p8KMb TIL that the Northern Great Plains was home to many fortified Native American towns, beginning in the 800s and existing all the way until the 1880s. These towns had over a thousand residents and a plaza centric layout. These were sedentary towns where people lived year-round.
VMGgp TIL in 1918, microbiologist Alice Catherine Evan warned that raw milk should be pasteurized to protect people from various diseases. She was met with skepticism, particularly because she was a woman and did not have a Ph.D. During the 1920s, scientists around the world made the same findings