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TIL the 2014 film “Nightcrawler” was inspired by a photographer named Arthur Fellig, who in the 1930’s, installed a police-band shortwave radio in his car and maintained a complete darkroom in the trunk. He’d often beat authorities to the scene, then sell his gory photos to the tabloids.

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jxda TIL a consortium of American and German organizations cut a hole in the side of a 747 to install a 2.5m telescope. This modified plane is flown above most of the atmosphere so infrared observations can be made.
JYwL1 TIL in 1940 Soviet secret police executed 22,000 Poles. After the war, Germany was blamed for the massacre and several German servicemen were falsely convicted at Allied trials after forced confessions. The real details of the executions did not come to light until 1989.
0wyky TIL that workers can get desensitized to the odor added to natural gas - mercaptan - which can lead to catastrophic industrial accidents. This applies mostly to purging those gases indoors and workers relying on sense of smell rather than monitors, without realizing they can't smell it anymore.
gr0jW TIL of Witzelsucht, a neurological condition which causes people to compulsively tell inappropriate puns or stories in social situations.
VMKX0 TIL that geese are one of the oldest groups of birds, having changed very little from the age of the dinosaurs. Relying on water for food and burrows for nesting is thought to have played a big part in surviving the K-T extinction.