› added 1 year ago

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TIL that a city in Turkmenistan was once the biggest city in the world, until the entire population was massacred by the Mongols.

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XEjOD TIL Casu Marzu is a sheep milk cheese where live maggots are introduced to partially decompose it before human consumption. And it’s only available on the black market.
lmr1 TIL that in ‘53, Coca Cola attempted to boost vending machine profits by asking the US Treasury to mint a 7.5 cent coin; that failing, they then briefly implemented “official blanks” where 1 in every 9 vended bottles would be empty
r6Wd TIL in 1942 the Canadians and British Navy launched a practice invasion of France, the Dieppe raid, they lost 20% killed, 10% wounded, 30% captured. The lessons learned in that disaster lead to D-Days success.
namb TIL in 1999 in a chess match called Kasparov versus the World, World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov played against over 50,000 players voting for the best opposing move over the internet. Kasparov won.
LkoAP TIL in Ontario, anyone living within 50km of a nuclear plant can order free iodine tablets for use in the event of a nuclear accident. Anyone within 10km receives them by mail automatically.