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TIL the ampersand was originally the 27th letter of the English alphabet. The alphabet would end in "X, Y, Z, and per se (meaning by itself) and". The phrase became slurred until the symbol was simply known as ampersand (and per se and).

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ZpwMo TIL that after releasing two albums that flopped, Neil Young was sued by his label, Geffen Records, for releasing music with so little commercial appeal that it was "unrepresentative" of himself. After the lawsuit, he released two more albums on the same label, leading to lowest sales in his career.
GY445 TIL the technical term for wood and metallic powder, shavings, filings and other byproducts from machining or working such material is called "Swarf". This is comprised of everything from metal shavings after a cut, to sawdust from cutting, to metallic powder from sharpening.
ep4mJ TIL Joseph Kerwin was the first American physician to go to space and had the first chance to study space medicine. Ready on Skylab with a minor surgery kit and drugs, a dislocated finger was the most serious ailment any of the three astronauts experienced when he was there
v1op8 TIL the words you use when questioning witnesses greatly affects their answer. They showed study participants video of a car crash and asked them to estimate the speed. Their estimates got progressively larger when using the verbs contacted, hit, bumped, collided, smashed in the question.
ep0r5 TIL about the Shepard Tone. An audio illusion that creates the feeling of consistent, never-ending rising/falling. The illusion is achieved by playing overlapping notes that are one octave apart. In this way, the sensation of rising or descending notes never ends.