› added 4 years ago

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TIL that British ("matchstick men") artist L.S. Lowry holds the record for the most refused Royal Honours....in his lifetime, he turned down awards FIVE times, including a Knighthood in 1968.

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xVYZo TIL about the French Paradox: people who had bad habits, such as consumption of lots of fatty foods, chronic smoking, etc, lived longer in some towns of Burgundy than people in other towns. Why? - They were drinking more burgundy grapes that absorbed an antioxidant molecule produced by mushrooms.
gMYNb TIL: there are two ways to perceive time; ego-moving, where we perceive ourselves moving forward through time, and time-moving, where we perceive time moving toward us. So if asked to move a Tuesday meeting forward a day, half of people would think that meant Monday, the other Wednesday.
M7Vma TIL that in 1912 Chicago Cubs manager/first baseman Frank Chance had multiple surgeries on his brain to remove blood clots from being hit in the head by pitches. He went back to playing (for the Yankees) the next year.
GYdXj TIL Insurance companies invented the “Fire Brigade” it was only later the government saw the need for the service to be available to everyone that they created the government run Fire Department around the American Civil War era.
BQEk TIL that Nicolas Flamel, said in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to have been 665 years old and to have created the stone, actually existed, wrote about alchemical secrets, and would have been ~665 years old when the book had been written if he did not die.