› added 6 years ago

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TIL that DMT has been found to bind to the sigma-1 receptor, which plays a key role in protecting cells from dying when oxygen is low, making room for the argument that DMT may indeed be released in large quantities during death in a last-gasp attempt to keep our cells alive.

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XEwwj TIL of Walter Freeman, a man with no surgical training who popularized the transorbital lobotomy by driving around the US performing thousands of procedures on not just men but women and children too. Contrary to popular believe, there is no evidence that he referred to his van as the "Lobotomobile"
neGKY TIL of Ronald Maddison, a British soldier who died after taking part in a voluntary nerve agent experiment to pay for an engagement ring for his fiance
awdNA TIL that Oak Bluffs on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, has been a traditional summer destination to upper class African-Americans for over a century. Though many had lived and worked in the area as early as the 1600s, by the late 1800s it had developed into an exclusive resort town.
1QV8 TIL that when Uwe Boll tried to obtain filming rights for a World of Warcraft movie Blizzard said “We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you.”
jEWR TIL that Europeans traditionally swam the breaststroke, while Native Americans swam the front crawl. When two Native Americans won an 1844 swimming competition in England, newspapers criticized their barbaric, “un-European” form. Europeans refused to use the faster front crawl for decades.