› added 7 years ago

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TIL that a domino can knock over another domino that's a maximum of 1.5 times larger than itself. Based on that progression, if you started with a domino the size of a carbon atom, you could knock over the Burj Khalifa with a 1.22 kilometer tall domino in just 74 steps.

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vG4L TIL a Canadian Research Firm has developed Invisible Camouflage, and is sharing it w/ the U.S. Government.
LQma9 TIL Until 1958 Popes were embalmed by having all their organs removed. Pious XII was against this so a novel method was used: it went so bad that his body started rapidly decaying while still in public view and the ceremony was canceled after the chemical reactions made the swiss guards fall ill
KOgn4 TIL in 1854 Commodore Perry gifted 110 gallons of American Whiskey to the Japanese emperor. That gift has since evolved into a $6 billion industry, with Japan's Suntory distillery winning 2015's World Whisky of the Year. Today, Suntory owns Jim Beam.
5Y0B9 TIL Carleton Gajdusek, who first described the prion disease kuru, had the rare distinction of being a Nobel prizewinner and a convicted child molester. As a medical researcher he studied kuru, an incurable disease that affects the Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea, and published 150 papers
0d46M TIL Alexander Hamilton was the first major American politician publicly involved in a sex scandal. He had an affair with 23-year-old Maria Reynolds, whose husband was aware of the infidelity and likely orchestrated the whole thing to regularly extort blackmail money from Hamilton.