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TIL a Challenger space shuttle engineer, Allan McDonald, raised safety concerns against the wishes of his employer & NASA. He was ignored; a fatal accident resulted. When McDonald spoke out, he was demoted by his company. Congress stepped in to help him. He later taught ethical decision making.
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/07/974534021/remembering-allan-mcdonald-he-refused-to-approve-challenger-launch-exposed-cover
https://redd.it/1f5nd9j
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TIL Prince Charles was 1st in line for the British Throne from the age of three. He held that title for 70 years becoming the longest-serving British heir apparent, having surpassed Edward VII's record of 59 years on 20 April 2011.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220909-charles-iii-britain-s-longest-ever-king-in-waiting
https://redd.it/1f560zx
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TIL Hulk Hogan Helped Prevent Jesse Ventura From Starting A Wrestlers Union
https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1062201/how-hulk-hogan-helped-prevent-jesse-ventura-from-starting-a-wrestlers-union/
https://redd.it/1f4oynj
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TIL that in 1885 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used 300,000 pounds of explosives to annihilate Flood Rock island in New York City's East River as part of clearing Hell Gate for safer navigation. It's been described as "the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Hell_Gate_rocks
https://redd.it/1f4xpyf
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TIL In the 1800s, individuals secured government jobs through connections to presidents, not by merit. This practice ended after a disgruntled job-seeker assassinated President James A. Garfield, whom he believed owed him a government appointment.
https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/spoils-system/
https://redd.it/1f4ywzw
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TIL that modern windows are usually made from float glass which is a sheet of glass made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten metal of a low melting point, typically tin. This method was pioneered in the 1950’s by Sir Alastair Pilkington and Kenneth Bickerstaff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Float_glass
https://redd.it/1f4cded
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TIL after John Ruffo was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison, his bail was set at $10 million. Most of his immediate family put their houses up as collateral to make bail. Ruffo then disappeared and the homes of his wife, mother, mother-in-law, and others were seized by the government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ruffo
https://redd.it/1f3w2xg
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TIL in the 1950s, future stuntman Evel Knievel drove earth movers in a Montana copper mine. He was fired for making the vehicle do a wheelie and accidentally crashing it into a power line, cutting power to the city.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel#Early_life
https://redd.it/1f46qn7
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TIL that Gerber, maker of baby food, once attempted to launch a similar, 'meal in a jar' product line aimed at college students and young adults, "Gerber Singles" -- it was a tremendous flop, even with such appetizing entrees as "Beef Burgundy" and "Mediterranean Vegetables"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerber_Singles
https://redd.it/1f46ud8
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TIL: why Election Day in the US is on a Tuesday: so farmers could get to the polls and still have time to get their crops to market.
https://www.history.com/news/why-is-election-day-a-tuesday-in-november
https://redd.it/1f4d172
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TIL Michael Jackson joined Jimmy Carter on an immunization campaign and gave more than 10,000 children tickets to his concert as a reward for being immunized against preventable childhood diseases
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIqrgG5Mj6k
https://redd.it/1f32eky
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TIL Switzerland has enough nuclear fallout shelters to accommodate its entire population.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/bunkers-for-all/995134
https://redd.it/1f3knja
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TIL Potatoes are not indigenous to Ireland. They were cultivated by the Incas circa 8000 BC and first brought to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century.
https://potatogoodness.com/potato-fun-facts-history/
https://redd.it/1f3gqm7
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TIL that the oldest writings mentioning yogurt are attributed to Pliny the Elder, who remarked that certain "barbarous nations" knew how "to thicken the milk into a substance with an agreeable acidity".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt
https://redd.it/1f37amm
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TIL that in Sparta, after the wedding, brides would have their hair cut short and be dressed in men's clothing so that they would appear less threatening to their groom during the wedding night.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_ancient_Sparta#Marriage
https://redd.it/1f3k5da
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TIL about the Lockheed CL-1201, a 1960s design for a nuclear powered, supersonic, flying aircraft carrier. If it had made it to the prototype phase, its wingspan would have been twice as long as any aircraft today.
https://www.historicmysteries.com/history/lockheed-cl-1201/31842/
https://redd.it/1f4uwjs
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TIL about “English as She is Spoke”, a Portuguese-English translation guide, written by an author that had no grasp of English. He used a Portuguese-French and then a French-English guide for help instead. The resulting book was read by both Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln to have a good laugh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_She_Is_Spoke?wprov=sfti1
https://redd.it/1f4rltt
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TIL of the Pratfall Effect, where highly competent individuals tend to become more likeable after committing mistakes while average-seeming individuals tend to become less likeable even if they commit the same mistakes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratfall_effect
https://redd.it/1f54pob
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TIL one of the top trial lawyers in Alaksa built a 17-floor whimsical house in the Talkeetna wilderness referred to as “Dr. Seuss House”.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dr-seuss-house-aka-the-goose-creek-tower
https://redd.it/1f4wc37
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TIL Borat's first movie was banned in Kazakhstan but when the second was released they made a tourism campaign around "Very Nice!"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kazakhstan-borat-ad-tourism-very-nice/
https://redd.it/1f54tc8
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TIL The McGuire Twins, billed as the world’s heaviest twins, were obese due to a bout of German Measles affecting their pituitary glands at age 4.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_McGuire_Twins
https://redd.it/1f43nlv
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TIL that during WW2 when penicillin production could not keep up with demand, medics would collect the urine of treated patients, separate the penicillin out and administer it to other patients.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/we-used-recycle-drugs-patients-urine-180953789/
https://redd.it/1f3yd5l
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TIL German filmmaker Werner Herzog made a short film called Game in the Sand (1964) that he refuses to release because filming “got out of hand”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_in_the_Sand
https://redd.it/1f415yh
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TIL that in 1691, a Swedish farmhand was executed for having sexual intercourse with a mountain-nymph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Andersson_(farmworker)#:~:text=Sven%20Andersson%20(1668%E2%80%931691),female%20creature%20of%20the%20mountain).
https://redd.it/1f49a83
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TIL that if a man has a kid over age 30, the child inherits 50% more genetic mutations than if he were 18
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24018
https://redd.it/1f44bx9
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TIL an estimated 400,000 children were fathered by occupying forces in Germany during World War II.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32972893
https://redd.it/1f2y0lq
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TIL there was a study sponsored by sugar companies in the 1960's and written by Harvard researcher D. Mark Hegsted that claimed sugar was harmless and it was fat that caused heart attacks
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5099084/
https://redd.it/1f38ipj
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TIL the Paralympics started because of disabilities resulting from WW2, so this will be the first one in Paris even though it’s hosted the Olympics three times.
http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasports
https://redd.it/1f3e1sh
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TIL in 2021, a single deli in New Jersey that was publicly traded managed to achieve a market capitalization of over $100 million despite doing only $35,000 in sales across two years. The deli's largest shareholder was the wrestling coach of the high school next door.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/theres-a-single-new-jersey-deli-doing-35000-in-sales-valued-at-100-million-in-the-stock-market.html
https://redd.it/1f3ln9o
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TIL Tom Dwan won the largest poker pot ($3.1 million) in broadcast history by calling down an ace-high bluff by Wesley Fei with a pair of queens. Later in the same cash game, Fei won the 2nd largest poker pot ($2.25 million) in US broadcast history against a different player.
https://sports.yahoo.com/poker-pro-tom-dwan-calls-down-bluff-for-31m-largest-pot-in-broadcast-history-202437732.html
https://redd.it/1f2hxmy
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