› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the translations of Harry Potter preserved the Tom Riddle/I Am Voldemort anagram. To do so, his first name in the Danish is “Romeo”, his middle name in the French is “Elvis,” and his name in Slovenia is “Mark Neelstein.”

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VB174 TIL When It debuted in 1929, 7-Up soda contained lithium citrate, the compound now used by psychiatrist as mood stabilizer for people with bipolar disorder. It was initially marketed as Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime soda.
7vgZ TIL a Russian immigrant to NY in the 1920s, Lillian Alling was so homesick that she resolved to walk home to Siberia. She walked an estimated 5000 miles in 3 years, serving a few months in jail for vagrancy in Canada, and was last sighted on the banks of the Bering Strait.
V1E0 TIL - It is not the shrapnel from a bomb that usually kills a disposal expert. It’s the shock wave. The sudden change in internal and external pressure causes the internal organs to explode. This is called “Blast Induced Barotrauma”. Bomb suits are nearly invulnerable to projectiles.
PYnZn TIL a German student was sued for $3,772 by his alma mater for earning his bachelor's and master's "too fast". Both degrees usually take 11 semesters, but Marcel Pohl graduated in 2; he went to one class while having 2 friends share notes from other classes he was enrolled in at the same time.
8jxG TIL There is a pharmaceutical treatment for alcoholism that is 75-85% effective. It’s a standard treatment for alcoholism in Finland, but is relatively unknown in North America.