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TIL Seth MacFarlane served as executive producer of the Neil deGrasse Tyson-hosted series Cosmos. He was instrumental in providing funding for the series, as well as securing studio support for it from other entertainment execs.

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j6ZGX TIL the Dumb Ways to Die song was a public campaign by an Australian rail network to promote railway safety awareness. It is credited with a 30% drop in rail accidents.
Z86PG TIL: Beethoven loved his coffee so much that he had his own recipe. It consisted of 60 beans. Not 59, not 61, but precisely 60. He would drop them into a cup separately and sometimes do a second recount. He also had a special apparatus for preparing it.
4L8w TIL the average senior retiring today will not get back what they paid into Social Security, but those who retired in 1960 got seven times more.
gMPeL TIL McDonalds szechuan dipping sauce wasn’t szechuan at all, as the szechuan peppercorn was banned in the US at the time of the original promotion.
KOE86 TIL of Operation Moolah, a 1953 USAF effort to obtain a combat capable Soviet MiG-15 jet by rewarding any defecting Communist pilot 100k cash. The person who won it didn't even know it was being offered.