› added 12 years ago

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TIL the element Selenium conducts electricity only when a light is shined on it; in the dark, it is an insulator.

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Ook1g TIL The red-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini) lives in the Galapagos. It has large, pouting red lips, uses its fins to walk or scurry along the sea floor, and has an illicium in the center of its head that resembles a human nose. The standard lifespan is 12 years.
oR71E TIL the game Oregon Trail was developed by 3 college students trying to teach history creatively. The first version was coded in just 10 days in 1971 and played by middle schoolers for 5 days. The code was given to an educational nonprofit in 1974, and the creators never profited from the game.
4kB0b TIL that, in 1604, King James I wrote ‘A Counterblaste to Tobacco’, in which he described smoking as a ‘custome lothesome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs
aw1ry TIL that Cassette Tapes have risen 103% in sales this year, on course to sell over 100,000 units by the end of the year, paralleling the final year they reached such numbers in 2003
QJwBd TIL weathervanes point to where the wind is coming FROM, not the direction it’s blowing.