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TIL Even monkeys introduced to a currency system will exhibit rational economic behavior and reasoning

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gMam8 TIL the mathematician Paul Erdős regularly used amphetamines to increase his mathematical output. His friend bet him he couldn't stop using them for a month - Erdős won the bet but claimed that it had caused mathematics to be set back by a month.
a8GA9 TIL that the hulls of the famous first "six frigates" of the US Navy were constructed from the wood of the American live oak, a species unique to the northeastern United States with timber so dense that "a nail driven into it was nearly impossible to extract".
loxyr TIL that Cement is the most widely used material in existence and is the second most consumed resource on earth, behind water.
gMpQ8 TIL air conditioning is not popular in Europe. Only 5% of French homes are air-conditioned, 2% of German homes. Many travel sites include horror stories from Europeans describing how "unpleasant the United States is with its artificial cold, and reports of legions of Europeans who return ill."
OJ71 TIL In 1932 the US Public Health Service conducted a study involving roughly 400 African American men who had contracted syphilis. The men participated in exams meant to study the long term effects of untreated syphilis. They were never given proper treatment and the study continued for 40 years.