› added 6 years ago

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TIL if you're an American adult, there is a 1/5 chance you have a mental illness.

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via reddit.com

JmDV TIL in Soviet Russia, people bootlegged forbidden Western music, but due to vinyl being in short supply, they would often use old x-rays, creating eerie-looking, hand-crafted records.
yLWw TIL NBC’s Dateline aired a segment showing gas tanks on General Motors pickup trucks tended to explode on even low-speed impacts. G.M. responded with an investigation showing that Dateline had rigged explosions in the show by affixing model-rocket engines to a truck’s underbody.
nW61b TIL that photosynthetic archaea(single-celled organisms similar in some ways to bacteria) absorb light using rhodopsin instead of chlorophyll, which is the same protein that our eyes use to see. The way they consume their food is the same way we see the world.
ePRE TIL In 1904, tea bags were invented accidentally. The inventor, Thomas Sullivan, decided that it was cheaper to send small samples to potential customers in silk bags instead of boxes. The recipients believed they were meant to be dunked and soon Sullivan was flooded with orders for his “tea bags”.
ggZb TIL that Japanese handsaws cut on the pull stroke, which is more efficient, whereas American handsaws cut on the push stroke.