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TIL that dogs have been trained to drive cars

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d8nLj TIL that Greek art strongly influenced Buddhist art following Alexander's conquests across the Middle East. Statues of Buddha did not exist before this, and Greco-Buddhism reached as far as Japan, where the wind God Fujin is still closely modeled after depictions the Greek wind God Boreas.
6EjQ8 TIL of the more than 750,000 drafted in the American Civl War during 1863 and 1864, only about 46,000 actually saw battle. The remaining 85% avoided the war by literally running away, finding someone else to take their place, or paying the $300 commutation fee.
p8exQ TIL If the Planck length is the smallest possible thing, and the observable universe is the largest possible thing, then an object which would roughly sit in the middle of these two sizes would strangely be.... an adult human body.
a80w0 TIL that James Conrad Marshall, killed in the Viet Cong attack on the U.S. Embassy during the Tet Offensive was the first Marine Security Guard to die in defense of a U.S. embassy or consulate.
wLQnW Today I learned that the term white elephant came from the king of Thailand giving giant white elephants as gifts to people he did not like in hopes of bankrupting the receiver of the gift with the expenses of caring for an elephant.