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TIL A teenager invented a quick-release ratchet and offered the patent to Sears. Sears told him the patent was valueless and gave him $10,000, then went on to make $44 million selling the ratchets.

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kJraB TIL it is a federal crime, punishable by up to $100,000 and a year in prison, for most people in the U.S. to possess any part of a bald or golden eagle, even just a shed feather found on the ground.
x6n0w TIL about Billie the Brownie, an “elf” popularized in literature, radio and television specifically in the Milwaukee, WI area during the late 19th - mid 20th century.
78pOL TIL, Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe, between 1945 and 1959.
7ypX TIL that a real light bulb cartel lowered the average lifespan of a bulb to 1,000 hours in order to boost sales in the 1920s. Their successful work popularized the concept of planned obsolescence.
xVwbb TIL Conservation efforts are saving the kākāpō on Codfish Island that are being threatened by the fungal infection Aspergillosis.