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TIL that during WWII, Coca-Cola lobbyist Ben Oehlert convinced the government to allow their product to be given to the troops as an alternative to alcohol in order to be excused from sugar rationing, thus potentially saving the company from going under.

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LQDwv TIL the engine for the Honda S2000 sports car had the highest specific power output for any mass production naturally aspirated piston engine for over ten years, until it was beaten by the engine in the 2010 Ferrari 458
b9XwQ TIL Wham!'s single "Last Christmas/Everything She Wants" is the highest-selling single ever to peak at #2 in the UK charts. They were kept from #1 by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Wham! donated all the royalties from "Last Christmas" to the Ethiopian famine appeal, Band Aid's cause.
4X0pR TIL about the book “How to spot a Jap” issued to US soldiers in China during WWII. In it, they were told the Chinese are “about the size of an American”, has even teeth and walk in strides while the Japanese are buck-toothed, shuffle and look as if “their legs are directly attached to their chests”.
OaNg TIL some Matrix fans believe that Neo’s special powers worked in the “real world” because the real world was another simulation, suggesting an Inception-esque “Matrix within a Matrix” system.
jNylj TIL the carpet shark, native to the northern Australian coast, is a long, slender shark that tends to be creamy or brown with variously-sized dark spots. They forage for food in tidal pools and risk being stranded, but they can survive for an hour without oxygen or simply walk back to the ocean.