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TIL that many countries end in the word -istan because "stan" is an ancient Persian word that means "land"

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KOLpQ TIL that Alan Rickman (known for playing Severus Snape in Harry Potter) was in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II
ZbLD TIL Laos is the most bombed country on Earth: The U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos from 1964 to 1973 during the Vietnam War. That’s equal to a planeload every 8 minutes for 9 years.
LkdP0 TIL Composer Richard Wagner's career was saved by a Gay Monarch who was clearly in love with him. Wagner played along enough to get money to stage his operas, but never "sealed the deal" so to speak.
wbwY TIL An old Heinz QR code on a ketchup bottle linked to a German hardcore porn site. A German man who scanned the code thinking it would go to a design you own label page, got an apology from Heinz, and offer of a free year’s subscription from the porn site.
1JVW TIL that a struggling young Harper Lee once received one year’s wages as a gift from a friend with the note: “You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.” She used her time off to write “To Kill a Mockingbird.”