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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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X0k18 TIL Father Alec Reid, a Catholic priest who secretly worked to end decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland between 1960s-1998, unsuccessfully tried to stop two British soldiers (Protestant side) from being shot by the IRA, while carrying crucial secret letter outlining peace negotiations.
78bVr TIL The fossilised remains of a T rex and a Triceratops who died fighting eachother, discovered in 2006, remained in private hands and thus unavailable for study unti 2024, partially because of land dispute over whether fossils are minerals or not. A court in Montanta ruled that fossils are minerals
enJ6 TIL: The land with private homes the Supreme Court allowed a city council to “condemn” and sell to a private developer is now an empty lot because the developer couldn’t raise the money to develop the land.
O1YL TIL once the last flight before winter has left the South Pole research base, leaving the ~50 crew that will stay all through the ever-dark polar winter, the remaining crew have a tradition where they watch The Thing from Another World (1951), The Thing (1982), and The Thing (2011) back to back.
j6RKQ TIL that the one-way speed of light is still undefined. All measurements of light speed are done using two-way (mirror) setups.