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TIL of the 'Berkeley Mafia' a group of University of California economists in Indonesia who were given technocratic positions under the Suharto dictatorship during the late 1960s. Their work focused on promoting free-market capitalism in Indonesia.

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m1JlY TIL that the India–Pakistan border is distinctly visible from outer space due to the numerous floodlights installed by India to facilitate its monitoring.
nQW9 TIL that art historians dismissed some doodles in da Vinci’s notebooks as “irrelevant.” But in 2016 a Cambridge professor found that one page of these scribbles actually contained the first written records demonstrating the laws of friction
nNnd TIL Steve Buscemi was a New York City fire fighter from 1980 to 1984. After the events of 9/11, he showed up in NYC to volunteer, working twelve-hour shifts for a week, and digging through rubble with his old comrades looking for missing firefighters.
0xbN TIL 6-year-old cancer patient Enzo Pereda’s Make-A-Wish request was to meet celebrity chef Barefoot Contessa. She denied his request multiple times, but after some bad press about it, she finally offered to meet Enzo. He told her no and swam with dolphins instead.
Ooo67 TIL months before D-Day British Commandos drove a ship full of explosives on a delayed timer into strategically vital shipyard. Most were captured but 5 walked back to Spain. During interrogation, a German Officer told one of the Commandos the damage would be fixed in weeks, right before detonation.