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TIL that in 1978 France rolled out a pre-World Wide Web online service that gave its users access to online shopping, search engines, cybersex and message boards. It reached 25 million users in the 90s, connecting to more than 23,000 services.

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owxR TIL that Andrew Wakefield, a former British doctor known for his fraudulent claim that vaccines cause autism, bribed small children for samples of their blood. This was done at his son’s birthday party without consent from the children’s parents.
ne5Q9 TIL In Alaska, plants can grow freakishly large due to the 20 hours of sunshine they receive per day - which gives them a photosynthesis bonus. Examples include 138 lb cabbage, 65 lb cantaloupe, & 35 lb broccoli. A noted side effect is that the produce is also much sweeter due to the extra sunlight.
MwRb TIL the Mortal Kombat movie soundtrack (1995) went Platinum in 10 days, reaching #10 on the Billboard 200
lMMV TIL that ‘the anchoring effect’ is the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the “anchor”) when making decisions
xVQ8D TIL that the lead singer of the California punk band The Offspring (Self Esteem, Come Out and Play, etc.) has a Ph.D in Molecular Biology and that his dissertation focused on HIV/AIDS research.