› added 1 year ago

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TIL that the Slurpee was invented by accident when a Dairy Queen owner would provide frozen soda, from a cooler, to customers when his soda fountain would break down. The owner, Omar Knedlik, improvised the Icee machine out of car parts, which was eventually licensed by 7-11, to become the Slurpee.

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B0Ge TIL a European engineer has created a liquid-filled, sun-tracking, energy-harvesting glass sphere is so powerful that it can not only collect solar rays as well as reflected lunar light. It can magnify this light by a factor of 10,000, turning illumination into heat energy.
4XyYR TIL the US actually made some attempts to use the metric system
6le7 TIL that “The Goldwater Rule” forbids psychiatrists from offering opinions on somebody s/he hasn’t interviewed. It was created in response to Barry Goldwater suing Fact Magazine for $75K after publishing “1189 Psychiatrists Think Goldwater is Pyschologically Unfit to be President” in 1964.
Mej48 TIL In the '80s, the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21 nationally because Reagan passed a bill in 1984 that required states to raise their drinking age to 21. They don't have to make it 21 per se, but if they chose to opt-out, they would simply be ineligible for federal highway funding.
P1M0V TIL that a guy sailed across the Atlantic in a yacht just 162cm (5 foot 4) long. Apparently, the sport is called microsailing.