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TIL George Washington feared the growing influence of political parties in the US. He thought that it would lead to “the alternate domination” of each party, taking revenge on each other in the form of reactionary political policies, and that it would eventually cause the North and South to split.

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6wdQ TIL Tom Clancy’s stories were so detailed, many assumed he was ex-military. In fact he never served. He wrote most of his stories in his spare time whilst working as an insurance salesman.
kO0Qd TIL that a major breakthrough towards the invention of plastics was achieved due to a surge in the popularity of billiard, prompting producers of billiard balls to offer a reward of 10000$ to anyone who could come up with a viable alternative to ivory (which the balls were hitherto made of...)
4aBN TIL that patent trolls cost businesses $29 billion a year in direct losses and accounts for almost 2/3 of patent lawsuits. Companies that have to pay patent trolls reduce R&D spending, by an average of $211 million and invest in legal representation at the expense of technology development.
rRAAd TIL a pod of killer whales used to hunt with Indigenous Australians. The pod would lead another whale into a bay then whistle to the hunters. After they had killed the whale, the pod would get the tongue and lips before the hunters took the rest.
8aPa8 TIL in 1861,a woman named Helga de la Brache attained an annual royal pension by convincing the authorities that she was the secret daughter of King Gustav IV of Sweden and Queen Frederica of Baden