› added 7 years ago

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TIL that nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, was first used as a recreational party drug by Britain's wealthy class in the 1700s before it was ever utilized for medical reasons

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7XpZ TIL: The first 7 Aftrican Americans elected to Congress were all Republican
5prB TIL of Larry Abshier, a US soldier in the Korean War who defected to North Korea because he was caught smoking pot. He lived with four other American defectors and was cast in several North Korean films where he became a celebrity.
vknR TIL a scientist invited wine experts to give their opinions on two wines: one red, and one white. In actuality, the two wines were identical, except: the “red” wine was dyed with food coloring. Not one of the 54 experts surveyed could tell it wasn’t really a red.
PYEXL TIL a wife was convicted of a murder due to testimony of a pet parrot that repeated “don’t (expletive) shoot” in the dead husband’s voice
D1nEg TIL in 2017 it was demonstrated that pop songs are getting dumber and more repetitive by running the lyrics through a data compression algorithm