› added 11 years ago

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TIL that human saliva contains a natural, non-addictive opiate, “Opiorphin”, and this is why we “lick our wounds”.

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Zk6B TIL the founder of Macy’s, Rowland Hussey, who was a Quaker, is credited with inventing the price tag. Quakers believed it was immoral to barter - charging people different prices for the same product. Also, price tags made it easier to expand and quickly hire new sales people.
N7VP6 TIL that two brothers from a set of triplets fooled a Russian prison when one brother swapped places with the other to give him a brief taste of freedom. Rather than returning, the freed brother ran off with his brother's girlfriend. It took years for the authorities to realize they had been duped.
yQdX8 TIL of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant that was closest to the epicenter of the 2011 tsunami in Japan but was undamaged because it far exceeded the required safety measures due to the stubbornness of one man. Fukushima famously experienced fatal meltdowns because safety measures were inadequate.
7gBX TIL that the eugenics movement of the United States, and the way it was enacted in California in particular, was a partial influence on the eugenics policies of Nazi Germany
VMypB TIL That Berlin was split into four zones, after WWII, but the city remained completely enclosed in the Soviet Russian Zone of Germany. Access for the three other countries (USA, Britain + France) was, for a time, by plane over hostile territory.