› added 4 years ago

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TIL during the Great Depression, the mortality rate of the US population actually improved. People lived on average 6 years longer.

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4XRjJ TIL that the pyramids were not built by slaves but by well-nourished, payed workers
wL0pE TIL that the brain is more active while asleep than it is awake. The brain while awake averages 40-60 observations per second, while the subconscious brain averages 11 million!
n65o TIL that on Oct. 4, 2013 a man named John Constantino, a former Vietnam Vet self-immolated on the National Mall seemingly to protest the Federal government during “the shutdown,” but later the story was redacted to emphasize that he had been battling mental illness.
eGOk TIL the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship who sank in 2012, stated that he didn’t try to escape but rather “slipped off the ship when it turned over and fell into a lifeboat”.
gJwW TIL that in 1947, the US War Department released a short film about how racist and bigoted demagogy allowed the Nazis to rise to power in Germany, and warns Americans not to fall for similar demagogy propagated by American racists and bigots.