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TIL a clear fishing wire is attached to posts surrounding the entire perimeter of Manhattan. From 1st Street to 126th. This string is part of an Eruv, a Jewish symbolic enclosure. Many observant Jews in Manhattan rely on this string to leave the house on the Sabbath.

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X0p46 TIL of operation Abscam: an FBI sting operation in the late 70s which resulted in the resignation of 1 US senator and 5 US congressmen and the expulsion of a 6th congressman for corruption. Congress made it impossible for the FBI to run similar sting ops in the future (Civiletti Guidelines, 1981)
rAwo TIL that WiFi does not stand for Wireless Fidelity. It stands for… nothing. It’s a made up catchy name developed by a marketing company.
0wEBp TIL “Dark side of the Moon” does not actually mean “dark”. We only see one side of the Moon from Earth and never see the other (tidal locking), but both sides have 2 weeks of sunlight followed by 2 weeks of night. Moon’s Dark/far side looks quite different than the side we see from Earth.
r7lW TIL that 49% of American adults eat at least one sandwich on any given day, according to the CDC. The most common fillings are lettuce, mayonnaise, tomatoes, mustard, catsup, and ham.
16RVr TIL After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US. [2018 numbers]