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TIL while trying to make a point about how difficult it is for new writers to be published, English author and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing submitted two novels, "The Diary of a Good Neighbour" and "If the Old Could", to her publisher in the UK under the penname Jane Somers - and both were rejected

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6E6VX TIL that there is a group in NASA that is legitimately researching warp drive technology called The Eagleworks Advanced Propulsion Laboratory whose purpose is to explore advanced and theoretical propulsion technologies that are intended to allow human exploration of the Galaxy within 100 years
B6GL TIL that in 526 AD there was a worldwide dust cloud that blocked out the sun for a FULL YEAR, resulting in widespread famine and disease. More than 80% of Scandinavia and parts of China starved to death, 30% of Europe died in epidemics.
RN98 TIL France is the only country in Europe to be completely self-sufficient in basic food production.
VOEp TIL: Researchers at Bell Labs developed radio astronomy, UNIX, C, C++, Plan 9, Inferno, the transistor, the laser, the first practical solar cell, and wireless LAN.
9YQjQ TIL a Black Robin named Old Blue has become the mother of her entire species when she was the last fertile female in a group of 5 Robins. There are now 250 Black Robins on the Chatham Islands, and have raised their status from Critically Endangered to Endangered.