› added 6 years ago

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TIL pants and trousers are called pairs because they used to be separate. As early as the 16th Century, you'd feed one leg in, tie the top around your waist and do the same with the other leg. The name stayed even when they started being made as a single item.

9wAr6 TIL of Marni Nixon, a singer who dubbed the voices of many actresses in the 1950’s and 1960’s, including Natalie Wood, Audrey Hepburn and Deborah Kerr. She was told that if anyone found out about her work, she would never work in Hollywood again…
ADNWa The human brain looks like a big, pinkish-gray, wrinkly walnut. There are so many folds in it that, if it could be unfolded, it could be a small tablecloth. Pinkish-gray might not match your decor, but it would be about the right size! This "tablecloth" is made up of the cerebral cortex and is the wrinkly outside layer of your brain. All those folds are responsible for abstract thought, language, and memory. Scientists believe the wrinkles exist as a way to increase the surface area of the cortex, allowing for increased brainpower in a smaller space. In this week’s Today I Learned, neuroscientist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Steve Ramirez shares some of his smarts on how your cortex is different from your pet hamster’s.
e0QeJ TIL they tried to approve the sale of the Chicago Stock Exchange on December 2016 to a Chinese Consortium out of Chicago.
E1rpV TIL about Project 100,000. A controversial Vietnam War era program by the US DoD to draft 100,000 low-IQ men a year for the Vietnam War. Dubbed, “Macnamara’s Morons” more than 5,000 were killed in the war, 3x the rate when compared to other soldiers.
xVmO1 TIL that the largest gold nugget ever found (called the Welcome Stranger), would be worth approximately $4.5M USD today, discovered by two miners John Deason and Richard Oates on February 5, 1869, near Moliagul, in the state of Victoria, Australia.