› added 8 years ago

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TIL that during a speech to senators intended to convince them that the dust bowl epidemic was a real issue, a massive dust cloud enveloped Washington DC, blackening the windows of the hearing and caking the room with dust. The Soil Conservation Act was passed later that year.

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Rxd8 TIL that zookeepers’ pregnancy test for polar bears is to have a specially trained beagle from Cincinnati sniff the bear’s poop.
D1eop TIL that whales can't breathe involuntarily. If you anesthetize one, it will suffocate, even out of the water.
epjOk TIL that the rapture, the evangelical belief that Christians will physically ascend to meet Jesus in the sky, is an idea that only dates to the 1830s.
Z8RwR TIL due to OpenReach, all broadband and telephone companies have access to BT cables in the UK. This helps to ensure more competition in the broadband industry and has the long-term benefit of keeping broadband prices low.
GAolE TIL that the oldest known writing in the world, Sumerian Cuneiform, is over 5000 years old and only 5-10% of all recovered tablets have been translated.