› added 2 years ago

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TIL that the guy who wrote “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” is now an 87-year old competitive runner, having won multiple national and international competitions in his age group.

kODGd TIL of the book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. It's about curious medical cases, including one of a patient with visual agnosia who not only did really mistake his wife for his hat, but also couldn't tell the difference between his shoe and his foot.
dDV68 TIL that 13 innocent men were exonerated because of lab technician Mary Jane Burton's habit, dating back to 1977, of scotch taping small samples of tested evidence to her lab records, even though doing so violated the official policy to destroy all evidence after it was tested.
5YQek TIL American Noah Webster is primarily responsible for the differences between American and British spelling, but many of his changes never stuck, such as medicine=medicin, ache=ake, soup=soop, tongue=tung, women=wimmen, and weather=wether
MVd8 TIL the increased definition of HD/Blu-Ray brought new difficulties to the porn industry, as the high resolution made scars and razor burn a lot more obvious
wL5a1 TIL in 2001, drug kingpin El Chapo escaped from prison in a dirty laundry basket. After bribing multiple guards, he was wheeled out of prison hidden inside it. The escape allegedly cost him over $2.5m. Over 70 guards were implicated including the warden, who's now in prison for the part he played.