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TIL China Runs A High Speed Train From Beijing, China to Lhasa, Tibet, about 1272 miles away, and passes through the highest elevation attained by any train in the world (16,600ft) requiring oxygen to be pumped into the specially built passenger cabins and with a doctor onboard every train

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QJ4jd TIL Top Gun's Charlie was based on Christine Fox, a mathematician who worked at the Center for Naval Analyses, just accross the street from the Navy's Topgun School. In 2013 she became the Defense Department's acting Deputy Secretary, making her the highest ranking female in the DoD's history
oRMwW TIL in 1977, musician Jimmy Buffett was driving to Key West on the Seven Mile Bridge when the bridge got stuck in the open position causing a 3-hour delay to fix it. To kill time, he wrote the song "Margaritaville" while sitting on the hood of his car.
W70PN TIL a high percentage of social media and internet trolls have dark triad personality traits which are narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy combined with schadenfreude.
BraRy TIL in 2016, Capt Bertrand Piccard was the first person to fly around the world in a plane powered entirely by the sun; 25k miles w/o a drop of fuel. His great uncle, Jean Felix Piccard, was a high-altitude balloonist and inspired Gene Roddenberry to create the STNG character Capt Jean-Luc Picard.
Yp7QP TIL that the Nintendo character Kirby was named after John Kirby, the legal counsel for Nintendo who helped them win their lawsuit with Universal Studios in 1982. John Kirby was gifted a sailboat Christened the “Donkey Kong” and given exclusive rights to name any boat he owned “Donkey Kong.”