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TIL in 1999 NASA lost a $125M Mars orbiter because of a calculation error. The mistake occurred because Lockheed Martin engineers used English (inch, ft) measurements in their calculations in contrast to NASA’s metric (cm, m) calculations.

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9XP6 TIL: The average human poops $13 in precious metals per year
RW9 TIL Sugar cures the hiccups 19 out of 20 cases
6EMw8 TIL of Mikhail Bulgakov, a Russian writer whose works were banned in 1929. In desperation, he wrote a letter to Stalin and asked to emigrate. To his surprise, Stalin telephoned him personally. Bulgakov said he didn't want to leave and asked to work at the theater. Stalin permitted his request.
d6Q7 TIL Al-Qaeda initially planned to fly hijacked jets into nuclear installations, rather than the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They had decided against the attack on nuclear power plants “for the moment” because of fears it could “get out of control”.
jNbrN TIL Lego copied their interlocking brick system from a British psychologist in 1940, and have failed to trademark it several times since.