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TIL that in 1986, the American Physical Society held a conference in Las Vegas. Most of the 4000 physicists didn't play at the casinos, resulting in the city's worst week ever, and the organization being asked by the city to never return.

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via reddit.com

epwGL TIL about "The Pearl": An underground pornographic magazine issued monthly between 1879 and 1880. Its contents were three serial erotic tales simultaneously, devoted to sex in high society, incest, and flagellation. It was shut down by the British authorities for violating standards of obscenity.
D1Z7g TIL that female ultrarunners are faster than male ultrarunners at distances of over 195 miles. One possible reason for this is that, when compared to males, female ultrarunners have muscles that are more resistant to fatigue and are able to burn their storage of fat for energy more efficiently.
j61wR TIL about the Younger Dryas Impact Theory, the idea that 12,800 years ago, the resulting impacts from a comet breaking up over earth's atmosphere would have struck glaciers and ice caps across the globe could have caused the great flood present in many ancient culture's stories/myths
XEPVQ TIL that bears are considered by many wildlife biologists to be one of the most intelligent land animals of North America. They possess the largest and most convoluted brains relative to their size of any land mammal. In the animal kingdom, their intelligence compares with that of higher primates.
P1WlO TIL that between 2008 and 2010, the Iraqi government were scammed into spending over $40 million on fake bomb detectors - the ADE 651