› added 11 years ago

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TIL when AOL 4.0 launched in 1998 they used the entire world’s CD production market for several weeks. No other major market CDs were created during this period of time.

69doZ TIL that it was calculated that it would have taken the concrete for the Hoover Dam 125 years to cool if it was poured as one continuous pour. Instead giant concrete blocks in columns were poured and then cooled by a series of internally contained pipes of cold water, greatly reducing cooling time.
neBJr TIL a German study found that wine tasted better if the drinker thinks it's more expensive. Subjects inside an MRI scanner tasted a $14 red wine 3x but were told each sip was from bottles costing $3, $7, & $21. The brain's motivation & reward center was more active for the "more expensive" wine.
BrYeK TIL that in a "computational data-centric analysis" of the most significant figures in history "adjusted for recency bias", Ronald Reagan was ranked 32nd, above Paul the Apostle, Genghis Khan, Thomas Edison, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freud, Mahatma Gandhi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Galileo, and Buddha
kMde TIL when a plane crashed on Rikers Island in 1957, prisoners were released from the prison building to help pull people from the wreckage. Some had their sentences commuted or reduced for acts of heroism during the incident.
m1XGp TIL Industrial Biotest Labs (IBT) conducted almost 1/3rd of all safety testing for chemicals and drugs in the US from the 1950s to 70s. It was later was discovered that IBT had been falsifying data amd mislead federal authorities on the safety of many commercial products for approval.