› added 8 years ago

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TIL in 1998, Sony inadvertently released a camcorder that could see through clothes. When aimed at people wearing dark clothing, the night-vision feature created an x-ray effect, meaning what ever was beneath became visible. Sony had to recall over 700,000 units after they discovered the issue.

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7r7DO TIL Dr Szent-Györgyi, a Hungarian biochemist, lived a full life: shot himself to get out of WW1, got the Nobel prize for isolating vitamin C, had an arrest warrant personally issued by Hitler (for secretly negotiating with the Allies), escaped and hid from the Gestapo for 2 years, and had 4 wives.
5JwR TIL Black Friday in the UK is the Friday before Christmas. Instead of shopping we get very very drunk and cause unnecessary strain on the emergency services.
0lvN TIL in 1962 the USSR decided to test a 300kt nuclear bomb in space over a populated area, the resulting EMP fused 350 miles of telephone lines, shut down 621 miles of buried power cables and burnt down a power station. The following year they signed & ratified a treaty banning tests in outer space.
wLro TIL that Bella and Edward’s relationship in the Twilight series meets all fifteen criteria set by the National Domestic Violence Hotline for being in an abusive relationship.
e0kYn TIL about Tapputi, a Babylonian perfume-maker widely considered to be the world's first chemist. A cuneiform tablet from 1200 BCE describes one of her perfumes, made from flowers, oils, balsam, myrrh, and various solvents.