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TIL it is believed that one of the reasons for the paranoia and bizarre behavior that led to the Salem Witch Trials was caused because of a fungus, Ergot, which grows on rye plants and is a close cousin of LSD. Mistaking it for large rye grain, Salem villagers ground it into their bread and ate it.

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OojK6 TIL potatoes have 48 chromosomes, instead of 46.
GYy9Q TIL about Ann Hodges, the only person to have been struck by a meteorite
yVVoe TIL the French progressive rock band Magma wrote lyrics in a fictional language called 'Kobaïan'. The vocalist called it "a phonetic language made by elements of the Slavonic and Germanic languages to be able to express some things musically"
Oo4xY TIL about rangeomorphs. Ancient organisms that lived before the Cambrian Explosion that are the only known organisms to reproduce in geometrical patterns called fractals.
eMXn TIL that Christine Maggiore, AIDS skeptic who wrote the book “What if Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?” ultimately died from AIDS-related pneumonia.