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TIL about the Hanoi incident where a man lived after his hand was inside a particle accelerator while it was on. This incident sparked international attention to the dangers of using foreign translated instructions in experiments involving radiation.

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l701a TIL of the Schöningen Spears, ten intact wooden spears discovered in a German mine between 1994-99. Strikingly similar to modern competition javelins, the 400,000 year old spears are the oldest worked wooden weapons ever found, and suggest early hominids used very sophisticated hunting techniques.
l7aMB TIL Niccolò Michelozzi, head of the florentine chancellery in 1512 imposed a policy of "rigorous record keeping" on his staffers. He would occasionaly send them official mail from the office, saying "we have nothing to write to you about today, but we write you anyway, just for good practice"
KrlJ TIL despite being worth an estimated $8.3 billion there is no public record of Steve Jobs giving money to charity. He declined to participate in the Giving Pledge founded by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates
N7JD1 TIL there is a neighborhood called "The Hole" in NYC. It has no streetlights, sidewalks, or sewers, and it sits 12 feet below the surrounding area (hence the name). It was once home to a farming town, black cowboys, the mob, until finally earning the reputation of the worst neighborhood in NYC
R5yAj TIL about Benefit Corporations, for-profit companies that can make decisions for the benefit of society or the environment instead of solely for shareholders