› added 2 years ago

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TIL that expensive "crystal" (e.g. Waterford, Swarovski, Lalique) is actually just glass made with (most notably) lead oxide. Depending on the year and brand of your crystal, ingestion of lead is a possibility.

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E1PbP TIL About a fire at North Orange Blossom Trail warehouse in 1991. It burned so hot they couldn't put it out with water because it separated the hydrogen and oxygen.
gxm9 TIL Norway’s rainy day fund is approaching $1 trillion, or about $700,000 for a family of 4, thanks to prudent investment of oil revenue, directed by an “ethical council”.
R7G58 TIL Pythagoras didn't discover the Pythagorean theorem, and that Ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and Indians all knew about it before him
0d6ly TIL the Allais Effect refers to the allegedly unexpected behavior of pendulums which is observed to occur only during a solar eclipse
69X6m TIL about Odette Sansom Hallowes. An SOE agent during WWII, she was captured by the Gestapo, interrogated, tortured, and sentenced to death twice. She survived the war and was the first woman to be awarded the UK’s George Cross. In 1951 her GC was stolen, but later returned with an apology note.