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TIL bloodletting, the withdrawal of blood to prevent or cure illness. This practice was believed to balance the humors—bodily fluids, including blood, once thought to influence a person’s health. It was common from antiquity until the 19th century, when studies began to reveal its harmful effects.

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Pv0J TIL sunflowers can “remove up to 95% of uranium of contaminated water in 24 hours”. And “experiments in Chernobyl have demonstrated that they can concentrate on 55 kg of plant dry weight all the cesium and strontium radioactivity from an area of 75 m2”.
mxByP TIL about the Qallupilluk – marine creatures that steal children through cracks in the ice. They hum & knock on the ice. Some say they’re lonely, or hungry. An inuit legend used to scare lone children away from approaching cracking, drifting ice.
05bA TIL Falco’s 1985 single “Rock Me Amadeus” made him the only artist whose principal language was German to score a vocal number-one hit in the US.
lorV1 TIL Joseph Bazalgette, the man who designed London's sewers in the 1860's, said 'Well, we're only going to do this once and there's always the unforeseen' and doubled the pipe diameter. If he had not done this, it would have overflowed in the 1960's (its still in use today).
xVGnk TIL: In UK the maximum amount of airtime allowed for TV commercials is 12 minutes for any particular clock hour