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TIL Norwegian guards working at Nazi prison camps in northern Norway were so brutal that it shocked the German SS soldiers supervising them. The German officers were so unnerved that they removed these guards from active service and others were jailed.

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6917X TIL that one of Saint Nicholas' most renowned gifts was providing a destitute man with sufficient funds for each of his three daughters to receive a suitable dowry. This enabled the three girls to circumvent a life of prostitution to sustain themselves.
7AVX TIL that all bananas (or nearly all) consumed in the United States are picked very green, then ‘flash ripened’ by exposing them to ethylene gas. I also learned (see wiki in 1st comment) that ethylene is the most-used organic compound in industry.
oR5WY TIL a 2016 study found that teens consistently overestimated the risk behaviors of their peers. In virtually every case, jocks & popular teens did not use more substances, have more sexual partners, or break the rules any more than all the other school kids. But the perception was they did much more
9wblm TIL: There is a study in the UK at the University of Nottingham that tested the pop culture theory the "hot-crazy matrix" made popular by HIMYM with bipolar women. Men were overwhelmingly willing to date BPD women in the short term as long as they were attractive, while women won't for men.
e8Ob TIL After consulting with Brandeis, President Woodrow Wilson declared that the banking system must be “public not private, must be vested in the government itself so that the banks must be the instruments, not the masters, of business.”