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TIL that Santa Claus was issued a pilot’s licence from the United States government in 1927

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R65j TIL that “begs the question” doesn’t mean ‘asks the question’, and instead is a logical fallacy that means 'the conclusion lacks support’.
e0mLb TIL of Jacob Riis, a photographer who pioneered social reform through his photos of everyday life in the slums of New York in the 1890s. His book is called, “How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York.
9wg6 TIL - That the US still uses a mining law from 1872 that allows companies to extract mineral from government-owned land for 5 dollars an acre with no royalties
LjE0 TIL - Grocery stores spray water on produce to make it look fresher and weigh more, even though the water actually makes it rot faster
R7En8 TIL that in 2013 the United States bombed the island of Guam with 2,000 dead mice stuffed with painkillers to kill the Brown Tree Snake which is an invasive species on the island. The snake got there by accident in the 1950s on a shipping vessel.