› added 7 years ago

57

TIL that if the San Francisco Bay Area were a country, it would be ranked sixteenth in the world in terms of GDP.

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via reddit.com

vNnK TIL King Gustav III of Sweden commissioned an experiment to prove coffee was poisonous. Overseen by two doctors, a prisoner was forced to drink three pots of coffee a day until he died. Both doctors and the King died before the prisoner.
R5544 TIL that the first Olympic PED violation was pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, who drank two beers to "calm his nerves"
NXkrP TIL a 2020 study found that New Zealand kea parrots were able to make decisions based on probability, and to use knowledge they've already learned to predict what events might happen in the future. They are the first animal to demonstrate this "complex cognitive ability" outside of great apes.
yxje TIL For every Navy Seal, there are ~1000 imposters who claim to have served in the US Navy Seals.(28:30 onwards)
J1lQV TIL that the first Medal of Honor awarded by the U.S. Army was given to a group of Union soldiers who hijacked a Confederate train during the "Great Locomotive Chase" in 1862, a daring sabotage mission that became a pivotal moment in the Civil War.