› added 8 years ago

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TIL that Iran is the only country in the world that allows citizens to trade kidneys for money via a regulated marketplace. There is no waiting list for transplant patients. Citizens are even exempted from military service if they donate as the gvt. contends they have already served their country.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

4mpR TIL in his final days Lyndon B. Johnson would listen to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel repeatedly while agonizing over his legacy; worrying that he would only be remembered for the Vietnam War and not as the architect of equal rights and Medicare.
kOa54 TIL that in 1917 a French cargo ship full of high explosives exploded in Halifax Harbour. The explosion was so powerful that an 1100 lbs anchor shaft launched in the explosion flew over the entire town and landed in a field 4 kilometres away.
GoP4 TIL that Weird Al Yankovic is a vegan, and when asked how he can justify playing at the Great American Rib Cookoff, he responded “The same way I can rationalize playing at a college even though I’m not a student anymore.”
MDwa TIL that during the Spanish-American war, a warship sent to capture Guam fired 13 shots at the harbour fort; the Spanish sent an officer out to aplogise for not returning the ‘salute’ as they were out of gunpowder; they hadn’t been informed they were at war.
757p TIL between 1985 and 1992, a Los Angeles hospital recorded 38 deaths and 80 injuries due to rounds falling out of the sky from celebratory gunfire.