› added 4 years ago

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TIL Grafting tomato shoots onto tobacco roots in 2003, Rob Baur claimed to be the first to create tomacco, the addictive tomato tobacco hybrid conceived by the Simpsons in 1999. While the leaves had nicotine, the tomatoes did not.

9wM7D TIL that the two-man astronaut crews on the first four space shuttle missions wore special launch suits and sat in military jet-style seats that allowed them to eject at altitudes as high as 80,000 feet. These were no longer used once the shuttle was declared "operational" for future NASA missions.
KOwmG TIL that there's a special minimally-fermented wine used at masses where the priest is a current or recovering alcoholic.
4LKo TIL that Norwegian oil company Statoil is selling one of their oil platforms. “Well kept 20 bedroom platform for sale. Panorama sea view and plenty of room for a helicopter.”
6EExX A few transplants out of the 28,000 performed every year involve the same organ spending time in more than two bodies. The most common scenario arises when a patient in the late stages of a disease receives a new liver or kidney as a last-ditch effort to keep him alive. If he dies shortly after, and the new organ wasn't the cause, re-transplanting may be an option.
R7QE4 TIL that four high-school students in the ‘70s are the reason we no longer have pay toilets in America. They created an organization called CEPTIA, and were able to successfully lobby against the issue. 8 years later, pay toilets were all but nonexistent throughout the US.