› added 7 years ago

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TIL after seeing Blade Runner(1982), William Gibson, having written a third of his debut novel Neuromancer, figured he was sunk, since everyone would assume he’d copied his visual texture from the film. Neuromancer went on to be the first novel to win the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick awards.

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PopZ TIL Oklahoma (not California, Japan, Chile, etc) Experiences More Earthquakes Than Anywhere Else in the World
xVxWB TIL photoelectric smoke alarms are highly effective at detecting smoldering fires, provide adequate protection from flaming fires. Fire safety experts recommend installing a combination alarm, that either detect both heat and smoke or use both the ionization & photoelectric smoke sensing methods.
VM548 TIL that Stephanie Kwolek the inventor of Kevlar was working on finding a new, lightweight substitute for steel belting in automobile tires, on fears of a looming oil shortage and in anticipation of a market for lighter tires. What resulted was a new fiber five times stronger than steel by weight.
Egr4w TIL In 1788, a British fur trader recruited 50 Chinese from Macao and Guangzhou to Vancouver Island for building a fortress and schooner. Spaniards arrived in 1789, fought with the British, and what happened to the Chinese became a mystery as some escaped and others may have been killed
Jn51 TIL a Senegalese officer, Mbaye Diagne, drove hundreds to safety during the Rwandan Genocide when no other developed nation would. He died on a trip when a mortar hit his jeep.