› added 7 years ago

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TIL Credit card “chip” technology (aka EMV) that is being rolled out now in the US is almost 25 years old

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l7nd5 TIL that plasma is the 4th state of matter,and that it is the most common state of matter,making 99% of the whole known universe.
p8xM8 TIL of the 1561 celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg, Germany. The event was documented in a broadsheet news article at the time with claims that witnesses observed hundreds of spheres, cylinders and other odd-shaped objects that moved erratically overhead.
9Y8Zp TIL of an apocalyptic town in Pennsylvania that had to be condemned and evacuated to a near ghost-town because of an underground coal mine fire accidentally lit in 1962. The underground fire still burns to this day, and could burn for another 250 years.
b9XN4 TIL that when the artist, Melanie Willhide, got her stolen laptop back, all her files were deleted by the burglar. Data recovery experts were able to recover some of them. The photos were corrupted, but she decided to exhibit the work. The show was titled after the burglar.
Jpo8 TIL in 1964, riots broke out in North Philadelphia over a false rumor that police beat a pregnant black woman to death. Over 200 businesses were looted or destroyed. Most of those businesses never returned, which lead to much of North Philadelphia turning into the crime-ridden slum we see today.