› added 4 years ago

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TIL that not all of Antarctica's indigenous life died out hundreds of millions of years ago; Trees still grew there when our ancestors began using tools.

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xA41 TIL human life expectancy has increased more in the last 50 years than in the previous 200,000 years of human existence.
aw4jo TIL that up until World War I, it was common for both men and women to have long hair. The unsanitary conditions of trench warfare caused men to adopt short hair to avoid lice and fleas. Due to the number of war veterans and the prestige granted to them, short hair became the dominant style for men.
gJQA TIL that Queen Elizabeth II had to use ration coupons to buy the material for her wedding gown
PY1Kn TIL that after the U.S. Army Chemical Corps exposed over 11,000 guinea pigs to the bacterium Brucella suis via air-dropped M33s, one Chemical Corps general remarked, "Now we know what to do if we ever go to war against guinea pigs"
R7B86 TIL: Egg tempera is a painting medium that uses egg yolk to bind pigments. It was a ubiquitous technique during the early Italian Renaissance, when it was considered the standard for portable easel paintings. Botticelli, Raphael, and Andrew Wyeth all painted with tempera.