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TIL that the USSR sent so many scientists and engineers to the gulag prisons that the government set up labs for them. While workers in the ‘Sharashka’ facilities did not have to perform hard labor like other inmates, their work was published under the names of more famous Soviet scientists.

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BZ5D TIL Demetri Martin would play guitar and have music playing in the background of his comedy specials so Comedy Central couldn’t edit his set.
9YBkm TIL Chrysopeleas, or "flying snakes", are a thing. These mildly venomous snakes live in Southeast Asia and glide through the jungle by propelling off the end of tree branches. They are better gliders than flying squirrels.
oZyr TIL: Empedocles, 5th century Greek philosopher most known for the development of the idea of the Four Elements, also concluded that matter could neither be created nor destroyed, and developed a theory of evolution concluding that form followed function and that the most fit survived.
RVp7 TIL that in 1978 a lone pilot flying in Australia reported to air traffic control that he was being accompanied by an aircraft above him. Asked to identify the aircraft, he radioed “It isn’t an aircraft”. His plane disappeared and has never been found.
9w5Rr TIL that in Spain, there is only one town whose name begins with the letter W, being the town of Wamba (Vamba), named in honor of the Gothic king of the same name postumatically.