› added 7 years ago

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TIL The CIA spent $20 million in the 60’s training cats to spy on the Soviets. The first spy cat was hit by a taxi.

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womo8 TIL in addition to being energy efficient, modern streetlights are frequently wirelessly connected, letting municipalities/utility companies know when their lightbulbs might need to get replaced.
JYel4 TIL Pine Honey is actually made from the sugary poop of cicadas (and other bugs) that the bees eat, then vomit back up as delicious honey.
5YGKB TIL Ivy league schools all had ties to the Opium trade in the late 19th century with major benefactors using their drug money to fund libraries, societies and even Princeton itself. Undergrads even began running opium dens from Boston to New York until a Harvard student OD'd in 1889.
xAW0 TIL 48% of Americans can immediately come up with $400 in emergency cash without borrowing it or selling something (via 2013 Federal Reserve report)
mbQp TIL In 1774, Frederick the Great ordered Prussians to grow potatoes as protection against famine, but the populace were disgusted by them and refused. The king then planted “royal potato field” but allowed peasants to steal from it, which re-marketed the potato into a major food crop.