› added 8 months ago

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TIL that the now common white variant of the edible mushroom Agaricus bisporus is only about a century old and was serendipitously discovered in a Pennsylvania farm.

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via reddit.com

5YJwQ TIL that the really innocent-sounding German 1980's song "99 luftballons" or "99 red balloons" is actually about two kids accidentally causing a nuclear holocaust by releasing 99 red balloons.
6En7W TIL about Martin Joe Laurello, aka Human Owl and Bobby the Boy with the Revolving Head, a German-American man who could turn his head 180 degrees
grBAL TIL that researchers long thought US President William Harrison died from an illness he caught giving a lengthy inaugural speech in the rain. But recent research suggests he caught typhoid fever due to the White House’s water supply being downstream of public sewage.
W7d44 TIL that the actress that did the voice of Anne-Marie in All Dogs Go To Heaven was shot in the head by her father shortly after her lines were recorded. She was 10. And it took Burt Reynolds (Charlie) 63 takes to record his lines after this (goodbye scene). I can’t stop crying.
6EKx7 TIL about the “Great Shoe Spill of 1990,” where over 40,000 Nike shoes fell overboard out of a shipping container. Due to the shoes’ unique serial numbers, the spill has aided oceanographers in their studies of ocean currents. The shoes are still being discovered daily in distant locations!