› added 4 years ago

98

TIL Methamphetamine was sold in WW2 under the brand name Pervitin. It was used by all branches of the Wehrmacht forces of the Third Reich for its "stimulant effects and to induce extended wakefulness."

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

oRNl8 TIL of the Soka Hoax. A group is given a nonsensical academic paper to judge. All but one in the group are hired to give mostly glowing reviews, persuading the unwitting participant to also give a glow review despite disagreeing. One shill gives a negative review, which everyone also condemns.
JYRdj TIL: An 18th century German named Matthew Birchinger, aka "the little man of Nuremberg," played instruments, was a calligrapher and a famous magician. He performed tricks that have never been explained. Yet he had no hands, legs, or thighs, and was less than 29 inches tall.
16Rr TIL that during the Siege of Leningrad in WWII, extreme famine led to cannibalistic gangs of Russian civilians that devoured defenseless people. Cannibalism became so prominent that a special division of the Leningrad police force was created to combat it
PY8pV TIL of Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who survived 14 months lost at sea was sued for $1 million by the family of his crewmate, who accuse him of eating their relative in order to survive.
5V0lQ TIL that Mecca was laid siege in 1979 by a man who thought he was the prophesied Mahdi (the eschatological basis of Frank Herbert's Muad'Dib) and this attack triggered the conservative transformation away from liberal reforms, for Saudi culture, for decades.