› added 4 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

dD5R9 TIL that while filming Barry Lyndon in Ireland in 1974, director Stanley Kubrick received a phone call alleging that the IRA had him on a hit list and gave him 24 hours to leave the country. He left within 12 hours, with the film being only one-third completed.
16px7 TIL - in 1958, the US Air Force ran Project A119, to nuke the Moon with an H-Bomb
QMEp TIL John Bramblitt is a blind painter. How does he know what he’s doing? First he uses fabric paint to create raised outlines, and then he can actually identify paint colors by their texture.
g5m9 TIL The once widespread West African black rhino was declared extinct 3 years ago. The reason for extinction was poaching by humans.
Z8A5R TIL that, contrary to popular belief, there's no good evidence that vibrators were developed or used for treating "female hysteria". That idea comes from one book whose author said it's just a hypothesis rather than a claim of fact. Other historians consider it highly unlikely to be true.