› added 5 years ago

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TIL that at the center of a pearl is a parasite. Making pearls is an immune response.

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via reddit.com

b6kJE TIL The French Canadian Shawinigan Handshake
GAo7J TIL of Idi Amin's full title: "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular"
NX79M TIL Precursors to chewing gum date back 5,000 years with the first commercial chewing gum released in 1848. To sweeten these early gums chewers would repeatedly dip the gum in a plate of powdered sugar to reconstitute the sweetness while they chewed.
Brwnr TIL that using a fridge to prove bread dough reduces the temperature of the dough, allowing it to prove slower and longer, which increases its digestibility.
R7E18 TIL about Max Brod who was named by Kafka as his literary executor and instructed to burn his unpublished work upon his death. Instead, he ended up publishing all of Kafka's work.