› added 6 years ago

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TIL that the refrain "Mama-say mama-sah ma-ma-coo-sah from "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" by Michael Jackson was taken from "Soul Makossa", a song by Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango. The song was considered one of the first disco records, and became an underground hit in the early 70s.

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9w5gm TIL William Howard Taft tried to recreate the success of Theodore Roosevelt's teddy bear with his own "Billy Possum"
KOrOQ TIL that people with German ethnicity were expelled from eastern Europe the years after WW2. Approximately 12 million people were forcefully transferred, with between 500,000 to 2 million dying in the process. This event have been called a democide, or even a genocide, by some historians.
kOx8W TIL a box of Fererro Rocher chocolates is 42% plastic packaging that can't be recycled. "Carefully designed to maintain the freshness" according to the CEO
wLr4Y TIL scientists interested in aging joined the circulatory system of two mice together—one young, the other old—and studied the effects. The old mouse experienced reversed aging in muscle and in the brain. Researchers are keen to start clinical trials in humans.
KNAJ TIL that Ernest Hemingway lived through anthrax, malaria, pneumonia, dysentery, skin cancer, hepatitis, anemia, diabetes, high blood pressure, two plane crashes, a ruptured kidney, a ruptured spleen, a ruptured liver, a crushed vertebra, and a fractured skull.