› added 3 years ago

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TIL that 50 yrs ago today, the US conducted its largest underground nuclear test. A W71 warhead was detonated in a 7-ft-wide, 5,873-ft-deep shaft beneath Amchitka Island, Alaska. The yield was about 5 Megatons. The explosion raised the ground 25 ft, later collapsing into a 1-mile-wide, 60-ft crater.

Read more nuclearprinceton.princeton.edu

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LYm0 TIL the band Vulfpeck crowdfunded a free concert tour by uploading an album Sleepify to Spotify and asking their friends to play it on repeat while they slept. The album consisted only of 10 short silent tracks. Before Spotify removed the album the band had made the royalties amounting over $20,000.
b9Yw4 TIL in 1999, a study was conducted on the power of crystals vs. placebo. 80 people were asked to meditate with either a quartz crystal or a placebo stone which was indistinguishable from quartz. Most reported feeling typical "crystal effects" irrespective of whether the crystals were real or placebo
lo6YA TIL Back in 2011, the travelling Picadilly Circus was scheduled to perform in Joplin, Missouri, until an EF-5 Tornado destroyed most of the city, rendering them unable to perform. As a result, the circus employees used their two adult elephants to help drag debris off the roads for first responders.
KYl74 TIL that Indians/Indo-Mauritians make up approximately 66% of the population in Mauritius, followed by Mauritian Creoles (28%), and Chinese Mauritians (3%).
dDpOr TIL That Noel Gallagher of Oasis, wrote their hit single Live Forever in response to the ''depressing'' Nirvana song I Hate Myself And Want To Dîe