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TIL about the Quadro Tracker, a metal antenna hinged to a hollow plastic handle bought by police in the 90s for $400-$8000/unit. The manufacturer claimed the antenna would swivel to point towards a sought object or person. The fraud was exposed in 1996 and the company executives acquitted in 1997.

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via reddit.com

LQgpm TIL The tallest dam on earth, the Usoi Dam, is not man-made. The dam is a landslide from the 1911 Sarez earthquake that blocked the Murghab River in Tajikistan. In 2015 the dam survived a 7.2 magnitude earthquake with no signs of deterioration.
KYwpB TIL whiskers can spontaneously grow from tin and several other metals, sometimes causing catastrophic damage within electrical circuits. NASA has a team dedicated to investigating this risk, but the fundamental cause of “whiskering” has still not been discovered.
Eg8xX TIL Canadian undercover officers posed as teen girls to catch a disgraced officer who flashed them while driving around private girls schools in Vancouver
VnMm TIL that in ‘Tropic Thunder,’ Robert Downey Jr.’s character says “I don’t drop character 'til I’ve done the DVD commentary.” When doing the actual DVD commentary, RDJ does it in the characters Lincoln Osiris and Kirk Lazarus.
BrYle TIL that the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the first lighthouse in the world, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, constructed during the 3rd century BC and it was built of limestone from a quarry near the coast