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TIL that the "Immortals" name given to the elite army of the Achaemid Empire is due to the fact that every dead or wounded Immortal was immediately replaced by another and that they all wore the same mask, which gave the illusion that it was always the same soldiers coming back.

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OGnEY TIL Joseph McCarthy falsely claimed participation in 32 aerial missions in order to qualify for a Distinguished Flying Cross and multiple awards of the Air Medal, which the Marine Corps chain of command decided to approve in 1952 because of his political influence
neg8b TIL The first published story of an abduction by extraterrestrials dates back to Stockton, California in 1896. A man claimed he and a friend encountered an attempted kidnapping by three tall, thin beings, 7 feet tall and nude, with small delicate hands and hairless except for a soft downy fur
yWEa TIL in 1945 a farmer chopped off a chicken’s head, missed the jugular vein, a clot formed and some of the brain stem survived, providing basic homeostasis functions. Mike the headless chicken toured in sideshows for 18 months and earned the farmer $4,500/ month at the peak of his popularity
loNnB TIL that the Boltzmann Brain argument suggests it is more likely for a brain to spontaneously form (complete with false memories) than it is for our universe to have formed in the first place. This leads to the conclusion that statistically, we ourselves are Boltzmann Brains.
4X5m6 TIL people who cook from printed recipes are less likely to have a high BMI than those who get recipes from cooking shows or social media