› added 2 years ago

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TIL CLoudFlare has been using lava lamps, double pendulums, and Geiger counters as an alternative source of randomness for encryption keys since at least 2017

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9BjM TIL that in 1994 a 17 yr old boy used radioactive material from homemade items like clocks to build himself a nuclear reactor. Although it never came anywhere near reaching critical mass, it ended up emitting dangerous levels of radiation, likely over 1,000 times normal background radiation.
jKdQ TIL: The Soviet Union held it’s own version of the Olympic Games in which anyone could participate. The number of participants one year reached 90 million people.
N7xE1 TIL that in 1953, the indiana textbook comission tried to ban 'Robin Hood' for promoting communist ideals.
QN7od TIL Canada had an ancient glacial lake the size of the Black Sea, contained by an ice sheet. When the ice sheet broke ~9000 yrs ago, the lake drained and dumped enough water into the Atlantic to raise sea levels by 3-9 ft, cool the entire Northern Hemisphere by ~3C, and turn Britain into an island.
161eW TIL fresh water snails (indirectly) kill thousands of humans and are considered on of the deadliest creatures to humans