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TIL that otters keep their favorite stones under their arms when they're not using them to detach prey from the seabed and break it open. They've been known to form attachments to them and keep them throughout their lives.

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xV0J0 TIL between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Catholic church exhumed skeletons from catacombs and decorated them with gold and precious stones to serve as relics for saints. While some of the corpses may have been early martyrs, most actually did not belong to anybody with religious significance.
pYBgG TIL that Phil Sokolof, a wealthy businessman who ate fast food daily and suffered a heart attack, launched a $15 million dollar campaign against McDonald's for their "unhealthy menu", forcing the burger chain to switch from cooking in beef tallow to the "healthier" vegetable oil.
lw8N TIL Two families escaped over the Berlin Wall by building a hot air balloon. A mechanic and a mason, used their mechanical know-how to build a hot air balloon engine out of old propane cylinders. Their wives pieced together a makeshift balloon from scraps of canvas and old bed sheets.
VBWEG TIL that an escaped slave of George Washington, Oney Judge lived her life as a fugitive in New Hampshire and provided historians the most detailed account of slavery at Mount Vernon
Bp5b TIL that there was a Buddhist Monk named Drupka Kunley who promised women a path to Nirvana through the use of his penis, or “Flaming Thunderbolt” as he liked to call it. The women paid him in beer.