› added 4 years ago

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TIL that the reason one cannot drive straight from North America down to South America is one 100km stretch of extremely difficult, dangerous and environmentally sensitive terrain called the Darien Gap in Central America

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RRZ4 TIL that Stan Lee didn’t use his given name (Stanley Lieber) for his comics, because he was saving it for when he wrote serious literature
Z84aG TIL Astronomers discovered a "zombie" star that went supernova in 1954...then exploded again in 2014. According to the study's lead author, "This supernova breaks everything we thought we knew about how they work."
6kml TIL that forests cover over 50% of Sweden, there are also around 100,000 lakes and over 24,000 islands throughout the country. Sweden’s right to public access laws allows these areas to be fully accessible by the public.
OomAL TIL the Talmud instructs that no boy should have foreskin removed if two brothers had died from complications of the procedure. By the 12th century, this was said to be based on maternal descent. Rabbinic texts likely offer the earliest recorded evidence for hemophilia, the genetic blood disorder.
VMOv8 TIL that between 1764-1767, a man-eating animal/group of animals terrorized a province in central France. The number of victims differs greatly, from 60 to over a 100. The beast was allegedly shot and killed in 1767. Modern scholars believe the attacks were carried out by wolves.