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TIL that Edward Teller, the physicist who advocated for Oppenheimer to lose his security clearance suggested using nukes to create artifical harbours, fracking oil and preventing hurricanes

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wQZ6 TIL During the “Red Terror” of 1918, Communist secret police in Orel “poured water on naked prisoners bound in the winter streets until they became living ice statues.” In Ukraine, they “rolled people around in barrels studded internally with nails.” Upwards of 1 million people died.
9GeD TIL that after five months, Guns N’ Roses’ first album attracted only modest interest. MTV then humored a request from their label by airing “Welcome to the Jungle” at 4am on a Sunday. Sales exploded, eventually selling 15 million copies in the US alone, one of the best debuts in history.
knN5 TIL the Rolex watch company is run by not-for-profit charitable trusts. So after a certain amount of money goes to Rolex employees & the founding Rolex family, what remains is donated to charities. Some of these charities focus on watchmaking & some on HS education. Rolex founder was an orphan.
epQbn TIL the USA doesn't use the metric system because in 1793, literal Pirates of the Caribbean looted the ship carrying the "official kilogram" and it never reached its intended destination (the US gov't).
XEJrE TIL Los Angeles’s private golf courses effectively receive a public subsidy of $89.8 million in taxes” paying only $200,00 in property taxes without granting the public access to the land. LA ranks bottom of the list in terms of public parks against all major metropolitan cities in America.