› added 7 years ago

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TIL that Dollard Des Ormeaux, a mythical french soldier who blew himself up trying to throw a barrel of gunpowder 300 years ago and was made a martyr by the Catholic church

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via reddit.com

wLkXo TIL that a 5 year old called 911 after his mother collapsed in her bedroom. The operator hung on the kid saying he was fake calling 911 after 3 hours he called again and another operator said he should not play games and hung up him, Mother of 10 was found dead shortly after.
Y70GB TIL of a case where occult spinal dysraphism (skin-covered spina bifida), dorsal accessory breast (extra breast located on the back), and polythelia (extra nipples) all occurred on the same patient, resulting in a breast with three nipples located on the patient's spine. [NSFW] [PDF]
OReg TIL a philosophy riddle from 1688 was recently solved. If a man born blind can feel the differences between shapes such as spheres and cubes, could he, if given the ability, distinguish those objects by sight alone? In 2003 five people had their vision restored though surgery, and no, they couldn’t.
NmWQ TIL that in China, 1.6 million people die each year from air pollution.
R59xl TIL that Heath Ledger refused to present the Oscars in 2007 after he and Jake Gyllenhaal were asked to make fun of their "Brokeback Mountain" characters' romance