› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the U.S. government both subsidizes tobacco and funds the largest anti-smoking campaign in America.

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W6PX TIL Ronald McNair (killed on the Challenger) was the second black man in space, had a black belt in karate, and a Ph.D. in physics from MIT. He had a sax with him on the trip and had planned to compose the first sax song in space.
Xly8 TIL Hitler and Nazi officials outlawed animal cruelty including the boiling of live lobsters.
P18pe TIL that reinforced concrete became popular after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The subsequent fire destroyed much of the city, but those built with reinforced concrete made it "through the ordeal unscathed, where buildings of brick and stone in their immediate vicinity were entirely wrecked."
K8ZE TIL that the atlas moth, which is considered the largest moth species in the world, can spend up to 5 years in it’s cocoon but after emerging into its moth form, only lasts for 3-5 days.
Pvn TIL that the Peruvian president from the 1990s is of Japanese descent. He wore a kimono and brandished a samurai sword in his presidential campaign.