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TIL: You burn 650 calories donating one pint of blood.

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6xNQ TIL the way Helsinki survived WW2. In 1944 the USSR began a massive air attack on the city to force Finland to leave the war. Finns used fires and searchlights to trick Soviet bombers into dropping bombs outside the city. Russian diplomats were surprised to find an intact Helsinki after the war.
Z89v TIL lemmings don’t commit suicide by jumping off of cliffs and this myth comes from Disney staging the whole thing.
mknx TIL: The “&” used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet. It got its name from children slurring the ending of the alphabet song together so “and per se and” became “ampersand”
jNKDa TIL that the jolly fat person that people generally associate with Buddha is actually a different person - a Buddhist monk named Budai. Buddha himself is not usually depicted as fat.
QJeQa TIL that "Weird Al" Yankovic released "Polkamon", a song that featured briefly during the credits of "Pokémon: The Movie 2000".