› added 9 years ago

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TIL Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden, died of digestion problems in 1771 after eating a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring, champagne, and 14 servings of his favorite dessert, semla in a bowl of hot milk. He is remembered by schoolchildren as “the king who ate himself to death.”

Br8jL TIL in 1972 the US Congress established the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), to provide policy-makers with a better means of understanding complex science, and the many technology concerns of the day. It was dismantled in 1995 for being biased and unnecessary.
b9xkN TIL in 1965 Edward Turner from British motorcycle company BSA said that small Japanese bikes were good for BSA, as they would attract potential riders of bigger bikes. However, he did not predict that the Japanese would then export attractive larger motorcycles, thus threatening companies like BSA.
KYlgw TIL, In 2010, 80yr old María de Jesus suffered a heart attack and was pronounced dead at a LA morgue. Days later, morticians returned to pull her body for the funeral & found an unzipped bodybag and a corpse with bruises. It was determined that she tried to escape, broke her nose & froze to death
X0APP TIL hippos, the same species that now lives in Africa, used to be found in England (130-115k years ago)
woobo TIL Internet signals do not travel at the speed of light, but rather at a substantially slower speed, owing to the refractive index and/or quality of insulating material. A Cat5e connection propagates signals at approximately 64% the speed of light.