› added 11 years ago

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TIL that in the 20s and 30s many Europeans supported using massive dams to drain the Mediterranean for farmland and to connect Europe and Africa in a new continent called “Atlantropa.”

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m15XY TIL there is a species of mushroom that infects and zombifies carpenter ants. The mushroom slowly takes control of the ant’s motor functions and leads them away from the colony to die in a place ideal for growing. Then the mushroom grows out of the ant’s head.
JDLV TIL the Dum Dums mystery flavor is a mixture of two flavors that come together when the end of one batch of candy meets the beginning of the next batch.
7rwxX TIL in the UK it's musician union rules that for every actor or model playing an instrument in a music video, the production still has to pay an actual musician. In the iconic "Addicted to Love" video not only they paid the 5 'fembot' models but also 5 musicians behind camera miming the models.
nolr TIL that the biggest scale infiltration of the US government was done by Scientologists to destroy all negative evidence of their creator L. Ron Hubbard. Even with successful prosecution, they are still considered a valid religion and not a terrorist organization.
awe79 TIL the seasoned salt market was so tightly held by McCormick in the US that they were forced to sell off one of their two brands.