› added 10 years ago

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TIL Cleveland once released 1.5 million helium balloons. The weather kept the balloons from dispersing and the resulting chaos ended up costing the city millions in lawsuits and took weeks to clean up.

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7rkXp TIL about Continuum, a pseudoscientific magazine that denied the existence of HIV/AIDS. It ran from 1992 until 2001 and ceased publication because the editors had died of AIDS-defining clinical conditions.
4kMR TIL that ancient Japanese poets would engage in rap battle like sessions to display their wit and skill
8e8ML TIL: Fukushima Ind. hat a shortlived mascot named "Fukuppy", a portmanteau of Fukushima and Happy
JYae4 TIL that one consequence of lower oil prices is that fewer plastics get recycled. Since plastics are petroleum based products, if oil prices fall low enough, it's cheaper for companies that might use recycled materials to just manufacture new plastics, and recyclables end up in landfills.
4XbWo TIL Televangelist Pat Robertson, net worth $100M, predicted in 1976 that the world would end in November of 1982. After that didn't happen, he tried again a decade later—in his 1990 book The New Millennium, he said the world would be destroyed on April 29, 2007. The world did not end on that date.