› added 7 years ago

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TIL that before the British royal family was the Royal House of Windsor, they were the Royal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They changed the name to sound more British during WWI after a German air raid killed a class of schoolchildren in London, whipping up extreme anti-German sentiment in the UK.

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4XxlX TIL that it is not illegal to grow, possess and consume "magic mushrooms" (Psilocybe cubensis) here in Brazil (basically because we don't have a law against it) and there is even a web store selling them (alongside shitake, shiimeji and porcini mushrooms).
9Y8jM TIL that people sentenced to death by beheading were advised to give the headsman a gold coin to ensure he did not botch the beheading and cause a painful death by multiple strokes
bDN TIL That the possible arrangements for a deck of 52 cards, is larger than the number of seconds that have elapsed since the universe began.
KO4XQ TIL that the theory of gravitationally-assisted space travel - which enabled NASA’s Voyager and other missions to explore the solar system - was invented by a summer intern at JPL in 1961. He and his revolutionary idea were initially ignored, and he was not offered a job at JPL or NASA.
Z8Xmv TIL about Herbert Kleber, who pushed for evidence-based addiction treatment, not punishment and moralisms. This approach treated addiction as a medical condition instead of a failure of moral character, and helped prevent relapses, saving countless lives and transforming substance abuse treatment.