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TIL the "Mount Rushmore Syndrome" is the phenomenon where the US government, when faced with budget cuts, will cut the most visible and popular parts of its budget instead of reducing waste.

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Wkvj8 TIL that Theodore Roosevelt drafted a letter during the Spanish-American War requesting that his corps be transferred from Cuba after 4,000 soldiers fell ill. The letter was leaked to an AP reporter, which prompted the McKinley administration to bring the unit home to defuse the bad publicity.
0w8wp TIL that kids falling victim to tampered Halloween candy is an urban myth. None of the reports have found to be true. In one case a child died from heroin found at a relative's. In another a child died after eating cyanide-laced candy from his father who'd taken out a life insurance policy on him.
ZkPo TIL that for her role of Amy in Gone Girl, Rosamund Pike gained and lost 13 lbs 3 times to play the character at different times in her life. She consumed hamburgers & malts to gain the weight & exercised with a professional boxer for up to 4 hours a day & ran 5 miles (in 42 minutes) to lose weight
abp9 TIL that the average age of the NASA engineers who put humans on the Moon was 28 years old. This means many of them were teenagers when Kennedy challenged America to go to the Moon.
69XKw TIL about Ota Benga, an indigenous Mbuti who was featured at a 1904 human zoo (Louisiana Purchase Exposition). There he was kept, caged, with an orangutan as an attempt to ridicule Darwinism. He was given a bow and arrow so as to "enhance the primitive image".