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TIL Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah has garnered acclaim as one of the greatest contemporary writers in the world. Farah was warned that the Somali government planned to arrest him, so he began a self-imposed exile that would last for 22 years

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D1arp TIL that first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, wrote a farewell letter to his wife before he went to space. He survived the mission but his wife would receive the letter 7 years later after Gagarin died in a plane crash during routine training.
1avG4 TIL a Norway TV channel planned to show a reindeer migration nonstop in real time for 168 hours, using drones, antler-cams and snowmobiles. Previous "slow TV" included nonstop knitting, 18 hours of live salmon fishing, and hours of "firewood chopping" discussion followed by live footage of a fire.
mxmnY TIL Brothels & sex clubs in the Logano region of Switzerland have been stocking defibrillators to prevent clients from being killed by heart attacks triggered by sexual activity
e0Rkn TIL that in Norse mythology at the end of the world (Ragnarok) the gods--Odin, Thor, Loki and the others--as well as all humans, will die. Evil triumphs over good, and the world will be engulfed in water.
d84WK TIL Scientists have found that children who learn Mandarin—a tonal language—as babies are more likely to have perfect pitch than those raised to speak English. The finding supports the idea that “babies can acquire perfect pitch as part of learning a language.”