› added 6 years ago

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TIL that there is evidence to suggest meditation plays a protective role against the natural reduction in grey matter volume associated with aging.

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780nL TIL that Vanadium is one of the most effective spermicides discovered. Most spermicides irritate the vaginal wall. Not vanadium. It sneaks inside the sperm and snaps off the tail so it can't swim without external irritation. However, it also messes with blood sugar levels and turns the tongue green.
Y7mBP TIL that the story of Popeye eating spinach due to a misplaced decimal point over reporting its iron content is a myth. The correct iron value was already well known and nowhere did Popeye mention eating spinach because of its iron content.
7rA7r TIL The Queen of England can fire the entire Australian government. In 1975 her representative in Australia fired the prime minister of Australia and the rest of parliament in response to a government shutdown. There hasn’t been another shutdown since.
LQwj9 TIL that Nvidia founder Jensen Huang's parents sold nearly everything they owned to send him to what they thought was a prestigious boarding school but which was in fact a reformatory for troubled kids. He taught his 17 year old roommate how to read in exchange for help working out.
D1bxP TIL that a professor who ran a long running study on a pitch drop missed every single drop. One in 1977 because he went home tired, another in 1988 because he went to get a cup of tea, and in 2000 due to a malfunctioned webcam. When the next drop finally fell in 2014, he had died 8 month earlier