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Today I learned that in the 1880s, a young man named Larry Donovan attempted to make a living solely by jumping off high bridges. When he died at the age of 26, his mother was quoted in the newspaper saying: "I told him that jumping off bridges was a poor way of earning a living."

wL15J TIL the famous Kink.com building was built in 1912 as a stronghold/armory for the National Guard. During their ownership, it was also used as a sports venue. When the NG left, it was unused for 30 years but was used for internal spaceship scenes in "The Empire Strikes Back"
4XYxb TIL Your Mitochondria Contain a Rotary Nano Motor (ATP Synthase) that Spins at Around 7800 RPM
4XP4g TIL about Earth’s oldest known natural Nuclear Reactor, located in Oklo, Gabon. It's around two-billion years old, and was thought to have been active for several thousand years. Its average power output was 100 kilowatts, enough to run a few dozen toasters.
4b0X TIL during the Siege of Baghdad, The Grand Library of Baghdad, containing countless precious historical documents and books on subjects from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed along with the House of Wisdom. The Tigris waters ran black with ink from the big quantities of books flung into the river
5VQ9p TIL the Higgs-Boson Particle, aka "the God Particle", was actually called "the Goddamn Particle" by physicists because it was so difficult to detect. Publishers forced the rename, resulting in a confusing tie to religion for the particle which is nearly universally hated by physicists.