› added 7 years ago

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TIL that the shortest scientific paper ever published had zero words. A clinical psychologist Dennis Upper attempted an experiment: to combat writer’s block by writing about it. His experiment failed, but no results are results all the same, and the paper was published.

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9Yd0M TIL the smoke you see when blowing out a candle isn't smoke at all, but paraffin wax vapour
awkYb TIL "Irish goodbye" refers to a person ducking out of a party, social gathering or very bad date without bidding farewell. The phrase is attributed to the Potato Famine of 1845-1852, when many Irish fled their homeland for America. The distance and technology meant that they were gone forever.
JYEpQ TIL that it's only been illegal to sell your organs in the US since 1984, mainly to prevent the wealthy from having an unfair advantage.
WkPn8 TIL of a Beefalo, the fertile offspring of a Bison and a cow.
W7JVY TIL a person called Andreas Mihavec holds the record of surviving the longest without any food or liquids. He was forgotten in a basement jail cell in Austria in 1979.