› added 12 years ago

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TIL packs of cigarettes sold for $0.23 in vending machines were sold with two pennies inside to eliminate the need to dispense change.

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ANJ1n TIL In 1869 Cyrus Teed claimed to have been visited by a spirit telling him he was the Messiah after shocking himself. He then took on the name "Koresh" and created a religious commune for followers of "Koreshanity" in a small Florida town which was supposed to become "new Jerusalem".
PY6GV TIL about gympie-gympie, also known as the Suicide Plant. Covered in silica hairs which act like hypodermic needles upon contact, and filled with neurotoxins, simply brushing up against the plant will leave you in excruciating pain for months to years. No treatment is available.
gMm0b TIL The US Military still uses 8 inch floppy disks on outdated IBM computers to run the nuclear missile systems. It's because they are incredibly hard to hack. The computers are essentially air-gapped and the old IBM computers are reliable. They could run for another 40 years with spare parts.
b6kV9 TIL about 21% of beef in the US comes from culled dairy cows, sold for slaughter at around age 5 when their milk production drops off. This culling increases profitability and so subsidizes the cost of the milk production.
4k0kN TIL there is a whale known as the 52-hertz whale (also known as 52 Blue) of an unidentified species that has never been sighted, but has been heard and known to exist since the late 1980s. There was also a feature length documentary about it that Leonardo DiCaprio was an executive producer for.