› added 12 years ago

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TIL of Anthony Poshepny, an American CIA agent sent to Communist countries to train anti-Commie rebels. He would hurl severed heads from a plane to terrify Communist forces, and rewarded rebels for cutting off human ears

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78QaL TIL much like fair trade exists, in Italy a grassroots movement markets products as anti-mafia protection money in the areas worst effected by it
9wpa6 TIL of Heteropaternal Superfecundation - When twins are conceived with sperm from two different men. One way this can occur is when the sperm survives for a few days inside the female reproductive tract.
X0onP TIL of Cáin Adomnáin, dubbed "Europe's first human rights treaty". Created in the year 697, was a set of laws - which kings across Ireland and parts of Scotland mutually agreed to follow - that guaranteed the safety of non-combatants in warfare.
kOoR4 TIL that in the 1980's, A&W tried to compete with the McDonald's Quarter Pounder by selling a 1/3 burger at a lower cost. The product failed, because most customers thought 1/4 pound was bigger.
0wjpp TIL about Hoshizuna no Hama ('Star Sand Beach') on the Japanese island of Taketomi-jima, where the grains of sand are shaped like tiny stars. They're actually exoskeletons of tiny one-celled organisms called 'Baclogypsina sphaerulata'