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TIL Due to some deeply evolved responses to disease, fears of contagion lead us to become more conformist and tribalistic, and less accepting of eccentricity.

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kbGd TIL “RMS Titanic” fired 8 emergency flares before sinking. A ship in the area, the “SS Californian”, saw the flares and that the ship appeared uneven in the water. The crew told the captain, who did not believe the rockets were fired in distress. All of Titanic’s passengers could have been rescued.
Bvbr TIL in 1908, Lieutenant Thomas O. Selfridge did a test flight with Orville Wright in one of his planes to see if the US Army would be interested in buying the plane and its design. Orville crashed the plane and the lieutenant died. The US Army purchased the plane anyway.
XE05r “Screw you Apple, where the goddamn hell is my middle finger emoji?” can soon be conveyed in far fewer characters, thanks to the middle finger emoji that’s coming to your iPhone. But why did it take so long? Here’s how those middle fingers—and all emoji—make their way to your screens.
ADk07 TIL every year, large parts of the North American western coastline turn milky white as millions of herring collectively spray thousands of gallons of semen over their spawning grounds to take part in one of the largest mass-fertilizations of the animal kingdom.
Ooe07 TIL in 1880 a guy built a 200ft 14 storey tower made out of concrete with no steel reinforcement. It’s still standing today, 140 years later, and is the tallest non-reinforced concrete structure in the world. It was designed as his mausoleum.