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TIL that although red, yellow and green LED lights have been widely available since the 1960s, blue and white LEDs did not exist until the 1990s. The people who invented the blue LED won the Nobel prize for it in 2014, as it finally allowed for them to display the full color spectrum with LEDs.

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LQeVP TIL that even folk tales are classified as per the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) index which catalogues them into 2399 classes based on the overarching theme (animal, magical, religious and so on). For example Cinderella is ATU type 510.
GYG7N TIL, the Pacific Northwest is woefully unprepared for an earthquake and subsequent tsunami that would follow a quake in the Cascadia Subduction zone. The average time elapsed between quakes is 243 years. We are at currently at year 315 since the last quake. Everything west of I5 will be gone.
LQPjp TIL about William Astor Chanler: a member of the aristocratic Astor family who mapped East Africa, almost overthrew the Venezuelan government, fought in the Libyan, Somalian and Cuban wars of independence, served in Congress and later in life became a rabid antisemite.
Z8nKa TIL after the Chinese Civil War, several units of the Nationalist army fled to Burma. When recalled to Taiwan, some refuse and marched into Thailand, where they grew opium while fighting Communists for the government. Their village is now "one of Thailand's top ten destinations among backpackers."
8eK6K TIL that the creator of Lululemon deliberately chose a name with multiple 'L's to sound Western to Japanese buyers, who often have difficulty pronouncing the letter, and that the name otherwise "means nothing".