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TIL that in one lifetime (of ~75 years) humans went from creating the first sustainable light bulb to building the first nuclear power plant (Obninsk).

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XmxR TIL The US Government has rigorous specs for the pens it buys. assembled by blind people, the pens must be able to write for a mile and in temps 160F to -40, are designed to fit undetected into uniforms, can stand in for a two inch fuse, and be used for an emergency tracheotomy
WkKNY TIL: In a promotional Volkswagon experiment, one randomized group of subway commuters was given the choice of regular stairs and the escalator while a second group could choose between musical "piano stairs" and an escalator. The piano stairs convinced 66% more people than normal to choose stairs.
pY9rN TIL about H. Barry Jacobs, a Virginia business man who, in 1983, planned a business to buy and sell human organs on the open market. This led to the creation of the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, which outlawed selling organs for profit in the United States.
NXEOP TIL there are about 20 quadrillion ants on earth. Their total biomass outweighs that of mammals and birds, combined.
xmD TIL that Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” was written to make fun of the popular notion of taking the road less traveled, not support it.