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TIL Golden rice is a variety of rice produced through genetic engineering to biosynthesize beta-carotene. It is intended to be consumed in areas with a shortage of dietary vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency each year is estimated to kill 670,000 children under the age of 5

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via reddit.com

lo8gK TIL in Victorian times, ice cream was sold in small quantities called a 'penny lick' wherein a small amount of ice cream was placed onto a licking glass, which the customer would lick clean and return. It was banned due to concerns about spreading TB, as the glass was not washed between customers.
xj6b TIL That on the final Mercury Flight, astronaut Gordo Cooper’s capsule lost all power. He had to manually bypass the control system to fire the retro rockets and drogue chute and use his wrist watch for time and stars for reference points. It was the most accurate landing to that point in history.
7rBeM TIL that "the Defenestration of Prague" was an actual historic event that shaped world history and led to 8 million deaths. (Yes, they really mean "defenestration". I never knew how that hilarious word came to be, but turns out this is the origin.)
rNRQ1 TIL what causes old people smell. As our skin matures, its natural antioxidant protection declines resulting in greater oxidation of lipid acid. When lipid acid is oxidized, the chemical compound nonenal is produced, which gives off that old people smell.
WBVY TIL Louis Le Prince, who filmed the first ever motion pictures, disappeared without a trace in 1890. Thomas Edison soon took credit as the first and sole inventor of cinema, and even took Le Prince’s son to court to dispute it. Few years later, the son also died under mysterious circumstances.