› added 9 years ago

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TIL There was a Doctor in Detroit who falsely diagnosed his patients with cancer so he can profit off their chemotherapy to fuel his opulent lifestyle.

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1aPMd TIL the phrase "in the limelight" which refers to being the focus of attention comes from a 19th century device. Calcium oxide known as quicklime is heated in an intensely hot flame until it glows brightly. First as a surveying tool, it allowed for more accurate measurements.
mxDYO TIL that "We'll meet again", the song from the final scene of Dr Strangelove, would have also been used by the BBC Radio for "morale-boosting" in the aftermath of a nuclear war.
Me1pb TIL Tesseract is the name of a real geometrical concept - it is a cube in 4-dimensional space. It is a 4D shape whose every face is a cube. Just like a cube can be unfolded into 6 squares in 2D space, a tesseract can be unfolded into 8 cubes in 3D space.
DeKY TIL in 1785 Marquis de Sade wrote a book on a twelve-meter long roll of paper while imprisoned in France. The book was assumed to be lost in a raid and wasn’t published until 1904. The book, 120 Days of Sodom, makes 50 Shades of Grey look like a nursery rhyme.
1adj8 TIL that La Malinche was a native woman who played a key role in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, acting as an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. Today the term "malinchista" refers to a disloyal compatriot in Mexico.