› added 9 years ago

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TIL the famous Blue Marble photograph was originally oriented with the south pole at the top but was reoriented to fit the more traditional view of north-up.

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5Ra8 TIL that in 1974, Basil Brown, a 48-year-old health food advocate from Croydon, England, drank himself to death by consuming 10 gallons (37.85 litres) of carrot juice in ten days, causing him to overdose on vitamin A and suffer severe liver damage.
GYN7N TIL 70 percent of the world’s Macadamia Nuts came from one tree in Australia. All of Hawaii’s macadamias share distinctive markers with a tiny wild grouping of trees in Gympie, suggesting that all of the state’s modern crops were likely cloned out of a single Australian tree.
GA7GE TIL That the Hallway (as an architectural feature) was first recorded in 1597
1aRbW TIL Zoroastrian funerals involve a ritual called sagdid (dog-sight). A dog was brought in before the body. If the dog stares steadily at the body, the person is still alive. If it doesn't look at the body, death is confirmed. This was useful in ensuring that a coma was not being mistaken for death.
oOyA TIL That the saying “When it rains it pours”, was actually a saying created by the Morton Salt Company when they began using magnesium carbonate in their salt to prevent clumping in humid weather.