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TIL that Harry Potter was the most banned book in the US for 2001 and 2002, for the reasons of being “anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, violence”.

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JYYEQ The US Air Force’s scientific research wing is giving Lockheed Martin $26.3 million “for the design, development, and production of a high power (tens of kilowatts) fiber laser,” which it expects to start testing on a tactical fighter jet in four years.
oEdA TIL that English has 2 distinct P sounds: aspirated and unaspirated. If one holds one’s hand in front of one’s mouth and says “Pin” & “sPin”, one will feel a burst of air with “Pin” but not “sPin.” In languages like Korean, these are totally different sounds/letters that can change a word’s meaning
nZEW TIL that the first non-white player in the NBA was Wataru Misaka an Asian American from Utah.
MkoB TIL Phil Hartman, you may remember him in such roles as Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz, was set to be the voice actor of Zap Brannigan in Futurama but was murdered by his wife before recording began. They named the lead character, Phillip J. Fry, in his honor.
xVyy1 TIL the axolotl can regenerate its limbs and parts of its brain. Its genome is also 10 times larger than the human genome. Today, scientists study the axolotl as a model of limb regeneration in vertebrates. There are only about 1,000 left in the wild.