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TIL Since 2003, Elizabeth Laird “The Hug Lady” has hugged over 500,000 American soldiers who have arrived and departed from Fort Hood, Texas

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5YE4k TIL of the chariot race sequence in Ben-Hur (1959): the set was the largest ever built at the time and took over a year and thousands of workers to build; the director's son, a stuntman, almost died; the extras rioted on camera; and the cars filming the race were slower than the horses
MLvA TIL: Two bystanders were shot in Detroit when two men got into an argument over who made better Kool-Aid
xVjwo TIL the last Saturday of each month in Rwanda is Umuganda day, which means 'coming together in common purpose', when adult Rwandans are required to join in country wide clean-up tasks like picking up litter
NXjLe TIL about a 16th century book that opens six different ways, revealing six different books in one
Oogma TIL that traditional forest management used a sustainable method of wood harvesting called "coppicing" that would involve cutting a young tree to the stump, and harvesting the shoots in 7-20 years. One square km of coppiced land used produces enough heat for 100 homes a year.