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TIL the 1990s AOL modem sound was a sequence that allowed digital devices to piggyback on an analog telephone network to use sound waves to carry data across phone lines

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Lko5m TIL when Japanese pole vaulters Shuhei Nishida and Sueo Oe tied for silver at the 1936 Olympics they refused a tie-breaker. The silver was arbitrarily awarded to Nishida. They had their medals cut in half and then welded together so they each had one "friendship medal" of half silver, half bronze.
L5yZ TIL that Eratosthenes, along with countless other achievements, calculated the size of the earth in 240 BC using a stick, the shadow of the sun, and the known distance between Alexandria and Syene. He was off… by only 66 km.
NBw1 TIL that Irena Sendler, a nurse who secretly rescued 2500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, and was viciously beaten by the Gestapo for her actions, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2007, the year it was awarded to Al Gore.
Y768r TIL research scientists created a system to allow goldfish to drive a fish tank using cameras to track the fish bumping into walls to navigate towards a colored target for a reward. They changed starting positions and added decoys to prove the fish were navigating the environment not just memorizing
XEEoX TIL: Around 200,000 people in Hong Kong eat, sleep, and clean themselves in roughly half the size of a parking spot, nicknamed Coffin Cubicles.