› added 5 years ago

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TIL about George McJunkin: Born a slave, became a cowboy after the Civil War, and as an amateur archaeologist discovered one of the oldest sites of ancient human civilization in North America

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via reddit.com

JYYQQ TIL of the Hypoalgesic effect of swearing which has has shown that the use of profanity reduces the sensation of pain. Swearing in response to pain activates the amygdala which in turn triggers a fight-or-flight response. This then leads to a surge in adrenalin, a natural form of pain relief.
Y6B TIL University of Washington students created an artificial intelligence program to detect “that’s what she said” jokes.
NX8QN TIL that Marge Simpson was featured in Playboy November 2009
eY54 TIL that the US Flag Code states when a flag is no longer in appropriate condition it “should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”
mKZO TIL that after Wernher von Braun’s first V2 rocket was used in combat, he was quoted as saying “the rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet”.