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TIL about Richard Handl, a Swedish man arrested for trying to split atoms of uranium on his kitchen stove. On July 22nd, 2011, he was detained by police after he personally called the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) to inquire whether his project was legal or not.

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VMynB TIL that Battlefield Earth, a 1982 science fiction novel written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, has been praised by numerous fantasy and science fiction authors, among them Neil Gaiman, Frederik Pohl, and Kevin J. Anderson
76p7 TIL that in 2012 the NYPD committed a man to a mental hospital when he claimed to be a Navy SEAL after being arrested for running a red light and weapons possession. It was soon confirmed that he was in fact an active duty Navy SEAL, and he was released with all charges against him deferred.
Wk5Kd TIL in a relatively massive scientific discovery around 1676, Danish astronomer Ole Roemer was the first to calculate that light travels at a finite speed. He studied Jupiter's moons and determined their eclipses happened sooner than predicted when the Earth was closer to Jupiter.
MebNA TIL the rock band Huey Lewis and the News almost called themselves the American Express, but was told by their record label the credit card company of the same name wouldn't appreciate it - so they settled on a name reflecting Lewis' love of TV news
9wJnQ TIL Of the great oxydation event: a single type of oxygen producing bacteria is responsible for terraforming earth from largely oxygen free to the earth we know today, giving rise to oxygen based life and causing a mass extinction of anaerobic life forms, wiping out about 80% of them