› added 3 months ago

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TIL that fixing a software bug made the bug worse. While fixing a flaw in the Atari BASIC language that causes the computer to freeze, the programmer saw the same code elsewhere, and changed that too. Doing so reintroduced the same problem he had fixed, but now the lock up occurs much more often.

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xVKEo TIL: A chemistry professor imported coca leaves to Germany that he gave his student to analyze. The student isolated a compound that had "a bitter taste, promote the flow of saliva and leave a peculiar numbness, followed by a sense of cold when applied to the tongue.” The compound was cocaine.
n7Oo TIL that Japanese honeybees kill hornets by enclosing them in a ball of bees, and then shaking so fast and generating so much heat that they cook the hornet at 115°F
awBa9 TIL Obsidian Blades are so sharp that they can cut cells and DNA. They are used are used in modern medicine because the sharp blades create incisions which heal faster.
b9ga7 TIL the average age people on the autism spectrum die is only 36
wo6X6 TIL about Operation Paul Bunyan, where the US cut down a tree in the Korean DMZ as a response to the murder of two officers, deploying over 800 soldiers and air support without any shots fired. The operation left a 19-foot stump as a reminder of the incident.