› added 5 years ago

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TIL that melanin forms a protective cap over the nucleus to protect against DNA damage.

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Lk50d TIL that the Soviet Union successfully landed 10 probes on the surface of Venus between the years 1961 and 1984. In spite of the short life spans of the Venera landers due to the extreme surface conditions, several of the landers were still successful in transmitting imagery from the surface.
6EP8 TIL the entire world population could be fit into the state of Texas and it would only have the population density of New York City.
Jr4Q TIL in 1916 German agents blew up a munitions depot in New Jersey. An explosion so large that could be compared to a 5.5 Richter scale earthquake. $100K in damage was done to the Statue of Liberty and people as far away as Maryland were woken up by what they thought was an earthquake.
1OxO TIL Back when the NYC Subway used tokens, people called “token suckers” would jam token slots with paper and suck out stuck tokens with their mouths. To prevent this, some attendants would sprinkle chili powder into the slots.
aDr0 TIL There is an island near Italy that was the site of wars, a dumping ground for plague victims and an insane asylum. It’s considered so dangerously haunted that the Italian government does not allow public access.