› added 13 years ago

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TIL the first MP3, created in 1987 by Karlheinz Brandenburg, was Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”. He chose it because the human voice is hardest to compress and believed Vega’s a capella was the perfect test.

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yVLyp TIL that the concept of curvature in space-time giving rise to matter and gravitation was predicted in 1870 by William Kingdon Clifford (although not rigorously proving it like Einstein managed)
Wkmmd TIL Alan Turing wasn't pardoned until 2013 for 'Gross Indecency' because of his sexuality despite shortening the length of WW2 by 5 years and being considered the father of modern computing, his work saved thousands of lives
W79kL TIL that NBC had another sitcom in the works at the same time as Seinfeld also named for its main actor called Ann Jillian that scored better with test audiences than Seinfeld's pilot episode and NBC executives gave a full season order. It was canceled after just one season.
8ay0K TIL there are species of sponges made of glass (silicon dioxide) which have excellent strength and flexibility, better than current fibre optic technology
PY6aZ TIL in 1984 javelin thrower Uwe Hohn threw a distance of 104.8m and became the first and only athlete in history to break the 100m barrier. Shortly afterwards some changes in the design of javelins were implemented and the records had to be restarted, turning his mark into an "eternal world record".