› added 7 years ago

205

TIL Isaac Newton was so obsessed with turning base metal to gold that samples of his hair showed mercury levels up to 40 times higher than average. This is considered to be the reason he went mad in his later years.

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Bg8KK TIL the story of Morris "Two Gun" Cohen, a Jewish British Canadian adventurer who fought in both world wars and ended up a General in the Chinese Army.
BJgx TIL the brain takes 13 milliseconds to process an image. In other words, you live at a ping of 13.
GmgN TIL that every Purple Heart medal awarded up to date was originally made during WWII in anticipation of the casualties that US troops would suffer in Japan
xVwQ5 TIL the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope was held for ransom while being shipped to Hawaii. The US Coast Guard retook the telescope under a writ of 'piracy on the high seas'.
byXE TIL that because of the urban myth in the ‘60s and '70s that trick-or-treaters were given candy apples with razor blades in them, hospitals offered free x-rays for any candy apple given to children during the Halloween season.