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TIL that kookaburras are also known as laughing jackasses

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PLQV TIL George Washington Carver turned down a job working for Thomas Edison making $100k/year (~$1 million year today) because Carver believed his inventions should be made free to the public.
BrNxb TIL that the world’s roundest object, a silicon-28 atom sphere, was created to perfectly define the weight of a kilogram. These spheres are so precisely round that if they were the size of the Earth, there would only be a 3-5 meter difference between Mount Everest and the Mariana Trench.
yQwwa TIL there is a disease called fatal familial insomnia which completely prevents sleep. You will continue to stay awake until death and there is absolutely no way for you to sleep, even with the strongest medication out there. It can begin subtle but with time it will always end in death.
Y7nlA TIL the tiny nation of Vanuatu has the world's highest linguistic density per capita. Its population of 300,000 speak 138 indigenous Oceanic languages. That's not counting the languages brought in by new migrants.
mxpLY TIL in 2005 a woman walked alone across the Sahara desert