› added 10 years ago

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TIL In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, invested in a geospatial data visualization company named Keyhole, which was sold to Google in 2004 and later became the basis for Google Earth.

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7re7O TIL that airplanes will perform a "fuel dump" if they need to land earlier than expected. This is because airplanes can take off with more weight than they can land with, and the fuel makes of 80% of the aircraft's weight at takeoff.
MeyRW TIL about a book 'It Cant Happen Here' (1935). It's about "a demagogue who is elected President of the United States after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values." A civil war breaks out as a result.
rRvod TIL da Vinci's The Last Supper painting (1498) is 29 feet wide and 23 feet tall, and around 1652 a door was cut through part of it, destroying the area in which Jesus's feet were depicted.
8e998 TIL that Presidents Day is still officially known as Washington's Birthday
78aLP TIL that Cecil Fielder and his son Prince Fielder are tied for 126th on the Major League Baseball home run list, with each having scored 319 in their career.