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TIL Thomas Jefferson wrote the original draft of the Declaration of Independence over only a few hectic days while seated at his usual table in the Indian Queen Tavern in Philadelphia, drinking Madeira wine

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WMyL TIL Lichtenstein and Haiti developed identical national flags independently of each other. No one realized until the two countries competed against each other in the 1936 Summer Olympics under the same flag.
kOmdE TIL: Brazil forbids anyone to visit the island "Ilha da Queimada Grande" without a special permit. It's crawling with the endangered Golden Lancehead Vipers and its venom is so strong it can melt human flesh. Poachers visit the island because specimens can fetch $10-30K on the black market.
wLXBY An almost sci-fi study published in Physical Review Letters by UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Peter Hintz and colleagues could mean that there are black holes out there that would be more like portals than gaping mouths of destruction — if you didn’t mind your entire past being erased and entering into infinite futures.
rlkx TIL the reason the background clouds, hills etc. have eyes in the Super Mario games is because they used to be Mushroom People (toads) and were transformed by Bowser’s magic. The pipes and bricks that you destroy used to be Mushroom People too.
YRwA TIL that in the 1940s the FBI considered the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” to be communist propaganda due to its supposed subversive anti-capitalist/banking themes.