› added 11 years ago

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TIL the US Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice reported in 2004 that the effects of renewing the 1994 assault weapon ban might be “too small for reliable measurement” because “[assault weapons] were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban”.

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Xb48 TIL of the first person to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge - a professional high diver who wanted to ‘demonstrate that people did not die by simply falling through the air’. He proved himself correct after falling, safely, 135 feet through the air; dying from impact upon hitting the water.
n0v7 TIL Ellis Island was man made using the earth removed from under New York City while clearing space for the subway system.
7rBKX Today I learned that there is a specific name for places that feel like an altered reality
OGxna Today I learned that in 2012, a contest was held online for Taylor Swift to perform a concert at your local school. Online trolls mass voted for Boston's Horace Mann School for the Deaf. Swift declined to go, and instead donated $50,000 to.the school.
x4gk TIL that Antarctica has the highest literacy rate of any continent.