› added 5 months ago

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TIL: The seasonal flu H1N1 that travels the world is now thought to be an attenuated strain of the original H1N1 Spanish Flu virus that caused the 2nd most deadly pandemic killing millions after WWI. The earlier hypothesis was that it contained genes from both the Spanish Flu and a seasonal virus.

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n90W TIL an ad agency successfully defeated a Tea Party push to defund and close a public library by pretending to be a Tea Party-ish organization called Safeguarding American Families, that was throwing a “Book Burning Party” to celebrate the library’s closing
kO9Dg TIL that snails can be dextral (clockwise-coiled) and sinistral (counterclockwise-coiled).
x4Pg TIL that in 2010 George Lucas said “I’m dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race.“ Two years later, Lucas sold Lucasfilm Ltd. to Disney for $4.05B and donated the proceeds to a charity that focuses on education.
kweW TIL Building a Toyota Prius is worse on the environment than building a regular car, due to mining of rare earth metals.
Z8XNv TIL that the earth will become inhospitable to life in 2 - 3 billion years as the sun increases in temperature, pushing the habitable Goldilocks zone to Mars or beyond.