› added 12 years ago

137

TIL A Swedish mercenary fought in 13 wars on 4 different continents

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ewxL TIL that Jackie Chan is a staunch supporter of China’s communist party, thinks Taiwanese democracy is “the biggest joke in the world,” and believes Chinese citizens need to be “controlled” through censorship, “otherwise they’ll do whatever they want.”
1aoYd TIL Research shows distinct changes in the brains of London taxi drivers throughout the process of acquiring 'The Knowledge' (memorising the 320 routes within 6 miles of Charring Cross). An increase in grey matter and better memory "proved the brain could adapt to new tasks, even in adulthood."
MJQ7 TIL that at the end of WWII, Canada had the 3rd largest navy and the 4th largest air force despite only having a population of 12 million
o04K TIL The reason Popeye eats spinach is because of an error in the calculation of its iron content by chemist Erich von Wolf in 1870. He misplaced a decimal point, recording iron as having 35mg of iron per 100g, instead of its true value of 3.5mg/100g. The former is equal to eating part of a paperclip
epmb4 TIL - Gordon Ramsey was the star in a documentary on how cocaine is made