› added 8 years ago

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TIL pneumonia has been called “the old man’s friend” because of its tendency to quickly kill off those close to death, ending their suffering.

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NXvae TIL Finnish babies’ first bed is often a cardboard box. The government sends all expectant mothers a box with baby supplies, and the box includes a small mattress at the bottom meant to stay in the box.
D59j TIL that as a child, Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped in a Comanche raid. 24 years later, she’d married a chief and had three children, including Quanah Parker the last free Comanche chief. She was “rescued” by Texas Rangers at 34 and spent 10 years trying to escape before starving herself to death.
LkbLP TIL : If it weren’t for Pierre Berton, far fewer Canadians would know the legend of Sam Steele, Canada’s most famous Mountie and probably the world’s most cartoonishly Canadian person. From 1898 to 1899, Steele was commissioner for the Yukon, as thousands of men and women from around the world
jN0Wa TIL the world's first electric synthesizer (1897) was a 200 ton beast that used 4 steam generators to provide the 671 kilowatts of power it needed, and its signal was piped down phone wires to subscribers at homes and businesses
Yp0YZ TIL Mark Hamill told Rian Johnson for the new Star Wars movie, “I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision.”