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TIL that in 1969, the Colorado government detonated a nuclear bomb (twice as powerful as as the bomb at Hiroshima) underground for the purpose of fracking.

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VBGGk TIL, that Painless Parker was a street dentist that created the Parker Dental Circus, a traveling medicine show with his dental chair on a horse-drawn wagon while a band played. The band attracted large crowds and hid the moans and cries of patients who were given whiskey or a cocaine solution.
Ypp6W One cartographer has done the heavy lifting, and rail fans are pumped.
nyWY TIL The Deepest Recorded Ocean Depth is 35,814 ft (10,916 m). At that depth you experience 1100 atm, which is almost the same pressure commercial water cutters use to cut steel.
Yp7m7 Consider the autoclave, which scientists use to sterilize tools and which issues scalding steam to do so. Or consider the heat gun, which is used to dry glassware and to warm distillation devices. It can also ignite anything flammable that gets too close. Glass containers in a vacuum can implode, spraying shards everywhere. Centrifuge rotors can fail, causing explosions that throw shock waves throughout a lab filled with chemicals. Steel vessels built to contain liquids and gases at hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch can rupture, hurling metal at lab workers.
m1KvM TIL that the widespread use of wigs, particularly in 17th-century Europe, was partly due to syphilis. The disease often led to hair loss and scalp sores. Wigs served to hide these symptoms, with scented powders masking associated odors.