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TIL Finland is a future-obsessed nation. It was the first country in the world to offer a master’s degree in futures studies, has a special parliamentary committee for the future, and its government is required by law to produce an official review of the future every four years.

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XEQwr TIL Napoleon had a healthy obsession with Australia his whole life. Had he won at Waterloo he intended to name part of Australia “Terre Napoléon” (Napoleon Land) and brought back 200+ species of Australian flora and fauna to France, making Josephiné the first person in history to breed black swans.
1ago7 TIL Stethoscope was invented when a 'gentleman' French doctor got too embarrassed to check the heartbeat of a female patient by tapping at her chest. So, he rolled up a sheet of paper to create a tube, and then placed it on her chest. The method worked, and stethoscope was invented.
LkaBZ TIL about Stuckie the coon hound that in 1960 chased a racoon 28 feet up inside the hollow trunk of a tree, then got stuck up there until loggers cut the tree down in 1980. He was mummified and almost perfectly preserved due to the tannins in the tree and inaccessibility to predators.
1av5r TIL about Cliff Young, a 61 year-old farmer who won a 544 mile ultramarathon in 1983, which he ran wearing overalls and workboots, by not sleeping for 5 days. He let the other 5 finishers split the A$10,000 prize.
b9D59 TIL Abdol Hossein Sardari is credited with saving thousands of Jews in Europe, and given the title "Schindler of Iran"