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TIL that André The Giant had an operation in 1987 in which his size made it impossible for the anesthesiologist to estimate a dosage via standard methods; consequently, his alcohol tolerance (“it usually takes two liters of vodka just to make me feel warm inside”) was used as a guideline instead.

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14e7 TIL Nazi Germany produced Chlorine Trifluoride for use as a dual purpose incendiary and poison gas in WW2. ClF3 causes almost anything to spontaneously explode on contact, including wood, concrete, sand, gravel, glass, asbestos, water, and of course flesh.
N05e TIL that two inmates sued the state of Alabama, claiming the cramped space in their cell was a cruel and unusual punishment. The state argued that students at Auburn University actually paid to live in even smaller living space in the Magnolia Dorm.
1MbX TIL in 2000 a man in Georgia was shot 16 by police officers and lived. The trauma center surgeon that treated him said that most of the bullets were stopped by the 6'6 225lbs man’s muscles.
ep7Q6 TIL Sumer was the first known civilization in southern Mesopotamia. It was there between 6,000 and 5,000 BC. Its writing goes back to around 3000 BC. The oldest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr.
p84Me TIL Stephen Hawking and Isaac Newton were both Lucasian Professor at Cambridge University. Hawking was pictured with Newton's own, annotated copy of Principia Mathematica in 2016 to celebrate the 600th birthday of Cambridge University Library.