› added 9 years ago

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TIL: There are still people around with plutonium-powered nuclear pacemakers implanted in their bodies. 9 were still working as of 2007, 35 years after implantation. They work on the same thermoelectric principle as the New Horizons spacecraft’s power source.

Read more uk.reuters.com

via reddit.com

6jdm TIL of Kiyoko Matsumoto, who in 1933 committed suicide by jumping into a volcanic crater on the island of Oshima. Japan. This started a trend in Japan, and in the year after her death 944 other people (804 men and 140 women) leapt into the same crater
PVjZ TIL of Ashurnasirpal II, the all-conquering bloodthirsty King of Assyria who built a temple out of flayed human skin, built minarets out of human heads, then commissioned art depicting him banging fertility goddesses and strangling lions.
N7NAb TIL of an ape named Oliver who preferred walking upright. He was bald, freckled, showed sexual attraction towards humans and even liked to pour himself a cup of brandy every night while wearing a smoking jacket. Due to his human-like features and mannerisms he was once believed to be a "Humanzee".
4XO9J TIL the British call sausages "bangers" because sausages had a habit of bursting (banging) open while cooking
OVAL TIL that Stephen King drank enough to write the book Cujo and not remember doing it.