› added 11 years ago

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TIL the US spent an estimated 50,000 rounds of M-16 ammo per enemy kill during the Vietnam War.

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QNkeX TIL that Dr. John Langdon Down believed that disorders such as Down syndrome (or "mongolism") make people look like a different race and considered this evidence that humans are a single species.
ZZRv TIL the numbers 1-9 were designed so that when you counted the number of angles in the number, you would know the value.
wolaY TIL microwave ovens can superheat water, meaning it's temperature is above boiling point without the water boiling due to lack of nucleation sites. Disturbing the water will then cause the whole water to instantly boil, creating violent flashes of steam.
wo8LJ TIL I Learned about RAS Syndrome, a term used to highlight when we redundantly use an acronym and one or more of their words together, such as 'ATM Machine' or 'PDF Format'
kJorm TIL that after Sam Cooke sang "A Change is Gonna Come" on The Tonight Show (Feb 7, 1964), the network lost the only recording of the performance. Cooke elected never to perform it again in his lifetime (he was murdered in Dec of '64), due to the song's complexity and ominous nature.