› added 2 years ago

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TIL that Marc Cohn, best known for his 1991 hit single “Walking in Memphis”, was shot in the head during a carjacking in 2005. He survived without any major injuries, and he was released from the hospital after 8 hours.

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D1evD TIL to combat the spread of smallpox during the Civil War, soldiers would find someone with cowpox, cut open their pustules, and infect themselves with it. The less harmful cowpox made them immune to smallpox, but they sometimes confused cowpox with syphilis and gave themselves an STD instead.
yNbJ TIL that there are two related phenomenon of déjà vu with names: jamais vu and presque vu. Jamais vu is, for instance, when a word is repeated so much that it doesn’t seem like a word anymore, and presque vu is when a word is on the tip of your tongue but you can’t think of it.
ob88 TIL of Don LaFontaine. The guy who famously does the “In a World…” voice overs and has done over 5,000 film trailers.
AeZg TIL a large patch of critically endangered Mount Diablo buckwheat wildflowers–thought to be extinct for nearly 70 years–was spotted at a nature preserve in CA. Location was kept secret for months for fear that hikers and vandals would destroy them.
rN4PM TIL that people from Swedish municipalities on the southern border with Norway are allowed to use the state-of-the-art hospital right across the border in Kalnes, Norway in emergencies and births, which is much closer to them than any hospital in Sweden.