› added 1 year ago

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TIL that the distinctive smells that new electronics and cars have are due to the substances that hold the dang thing together. These substances (adhesives, plasticizers, etc.) contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs evaporate at or below room temperature and enters our nose as odor.

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0wn85 TIL Gino Bartali not only won the Tour de France twice, but also saved 800 Jewish lives during WW2 by smuggling counterfeit identity papers in his bike’s handlebars.
oYWL TIL WWII concentration camps in Croatia were even more brutal than those in Nazi Germany. Prisoners were cremated alive, disemboweled and thrown in rivers, killed with mallets, drowned in latrines, tied together in groups and thrown down 300m shafts. On a bet, Petar Brzica, cut the throats of 1,360.
N7YWJ TIL Chuck E. Cheese is no longer a rat and has officially been a mouse since 2012
E1lmW TIL that Dynamite and TNT are actually different kinds of explosives, the former one having Nitroglycerin in its compounds. The common misconception of both being the same likely comes from pop culture references.
ROj1 TIL citizens in the United States can give up their citizenship at any time, becoming stateless.