› added 4 years ago

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TIL a sanitary inventor named Thomas Crapper improved the U-bend pipe, and patented the floating ballcock to prevent indoor toilets from exploding.

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xV0Jw TIL that Gerald Ford's presidency caused problems for political cartoonists, as he was considered so nondescript they couldn't work out what to caricature
a8rdo TIL the first email was sent in 1971, almost two decades before the World Wide Web existed
vpbK TIL JFK’s elder brother Joseph was groomed and predicted to be President but he was killed in WW2, transferring the expectations to the younger JFK
W9Eo TIL that the kid from “Hook” staring Robin Williams might just be the most successful former child actor. He has a physics degree from MIT, worked for the US government on missile defense, has a law degree, and is currently a law professor at a top notch law school, plus so much more.
N75V1 TIL that the Rare Earth hypothesis states that the origin of life on Earth required an improbable combination of astrophysical, as well as geological events in order to occur, and will likely not happen again in the Universe.