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TIL Dictator Muammar Gaddafi had a strange obsession with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He had Libya's most famous composer write her a song called "Black Flower in the White House." A photo album full of pictures of her was also found next to his bed by opposition fighters

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0w5by TIL In a study on lung cancer patients, 48% of subjects had quit smoking prior to diagnosis, usually easily, despite prior attempts. Lung cancer tumors secrete a substance that disrupts nicotine addiction, but the study was buried because scientists worried it would encourage people to keep smoking.
xV08o TIL about photic sneeze reflex, a genetic condition which affects between 10-35% of the population and causes sneezing in response to dramatic light changes.
jNxvj TIL In 1915 Closing and Opening times in pubs had to be implemented to stop factory workers showing up to work drunk and harming the war effort
WdO8 TIL license plates in DC say “Taxation without Representation” to highlight the fact that they pay federal income tax but do not have any seats in Congress
x4g7 TIL the Voyager missions were launched when they did to take advantage of a unique planetary arrangement that allowed flight time to Neptune to be reduced from 30 years to 12. This alignment occurs every 175 years.