› added 7 years ago

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TIL that the Texas City Refinery explosion was the result of a hydrocarbon vapor cloud being ignited by a runaway diesel engine. The vapor served as excess fuel (sucked through the air intake) creating a positive feedback loop. As the engine overheated, it backfired igniting the surrounding cloud.

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lomxG TIL that people with dry earwax carry a version of gene ABC11 that prevents their armpits from producing a strong odor.
1ap6V TIL doctors in Poland created a fake Typhus epidemic to ward off Nazis, and ended up saving approx 8,000 people from death or imprisonment in concentration camps.
epAgL TIL Chris Stapleton's cover of David Allen Coe's Tennessee Whiskey uses the melody of I'd Rather Go Blind by Etta James, as Stapleton and his band played the song frequently on tour and decided to use it in the eventual cover.
V6xk TIL the term “Bus Factor” - The number of people in a company who need to be ‘run over by a bus’ to send the company into such disarray that it would not be able to proceed.
JYaAv TIL an Ethiopian girl was being brutally beaten by 7 men when a pride of lions chased them away. They even stayed with her until help arrived.