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TIL that Dr. Thomas Midgely, inventor of both leaded-gasoline and chlorofluorocarbon with the best of intentions, devised an ingenious system of pulleys and strings to pull his polio-stricken body out of bed, which tangled around his neck, and killed him.

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4kPP5 TIL that crying can boost your mood. Cortisol (a stress hormone) is concentrated in tears. Emotional tears (sadness, anger, or joy) contain higher levels of stress hormones & natural pain-relieving substances than basal tears (eye lubricant). So, when in stress, you can literally cry it out
6EGQ7 TIL that in the past 100 years, parts of Houston have sunk by up to 12 feet due to aquifer depletion. This subsidence messes with drainage channels and makes the city prone to flooding.
RwP6 TIL that the German city of Essen pays alcoholics in beer to clean streets
0w5kj TIL that Apollo 12 was an exercise in precision landing targeting, and succeeded in landing within walking distance of the Surveyor-3 probe that was launched a few years earlier.
nWJGo TIL the HMS Detroit 20-gun sloop was captured in 1813, too damaged to help the war it was sunk for preservation. 20 years later it was refloated and converted for commercial service. 8 years later a purchaser tried to send it over Niagara Falls where it instead broke up on a shoal.