› added 5 years ago

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TIL Aldous Huxley, the writer of Brave New World, died tripping on acid. 6 hours before his death he requested 100 micrograms of acid to be injected intramuscularly which was given to him moments later. His death, like that of CS Lewis, was overshadowed by the assassination of JFK.

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gZ9b TIL in ancient Persia, engineers built a type of evaporative cooler that could store ice, even in the middle of summer. It is called a Yakhchal.
VrwD TIL of 3 men whom broke into a luxury store in Germany and ran off with $6.8M worth of jewelry. They left behind a piece of evidence, sweat. DNA analysis led to not one but two suspects- identical twins. They couldn’t determine from which one. They went free.
MeaMB TIL of Tanzanian man Saniniu Laizer: a small-scale miner who found 3 rare Tanzanite gemstones which he sold to the government for 12.44 billion Tanzanian shillings. ($5.35 million USD). Laizer, who has 30 children, said it won't change his lifestyle of caring for his 2,000 cows.
ep0J4 TIL the name Skyler is actually an old Dutch name, originally spelled Schuyler, meaning “scholar.” One notable Schuyler was Schuyler Colfax, 18th Vice President (1869-1873)
W6W8 TIL The shower curtain sucks in around you when showering since water droplets decellerate under the influence of aerodynamic drag. The energy gets transferred to the shower’s air and creates a low pressure system (similar to a hurricane) which sucks the curtain towards you.