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TIL Operation Midnight Climax was a program by the CIA in the mid 50s that used prostitutes to lure unsuspecting men to apartments in New York and San Francisco to drug them with LSD to test whether the combination of sex and LSD might influence the men to reveal information the government wanted.

Read more history.howstuffworks.com

via reddit.com

7gbZ TIL that there is no economic gain to be made from deforesting the Amazon to grow crops, as more deforestation leads to less rainfall which leads to lower crop yield.
e0DeE Not getting eaten is at the top of the to-do list for most members of the animal kingdom. Now, a new study suggests several species of dolphins can tell when they’re in danger of becoming a killer whale’s dinner—simply by eavesdropping on their calls.
neZwP TIL in 1856 businessman and aeronautics enthusiast Matías Pérez took flight in a hot air balloon at sunset in Cuba, and was never seen again. This incident originated the Cuban phrase, "Voló como Matías Pérez," (flew away like Matías Pérez) to refer to someone vanishing into thin air.
VMDEG TIL about Senator's Strom Thurmond's 24h 18min filibuster to delay and obstruct the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957
DQVxr TIL that in 1958, a plan called Project Oilsand proposed using nuclear bombs to exploit oil from Alberta's Athabasca tar sands. The concept involved the underground detonation of up to 100 nuclear explosives to create intense heat; hypothetically liquefying the oil and making it easier to extract.