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152

TIL: Words in songs are called lyrics because in ancient Greece poems used to be accompanied by a lyre

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b9NLQ TIL about Nutraloaf, a meat loaf found in prisons that is so bland that a court ruled that serving it to misbehaving prisoners is a "cruel and unsual punishment"
GYK8j TIL The YMCA gave Dr Naismith 2 weeks to invent what would become basketball in 1891 in order to have an indoor "athletic distraction" to keep rowdy youth busy in the cold New England winter months
0wPnR TIL of the Pomelo, one of the original citrus species from which the rest of cultivated citrus' have been hybridized, such as today's oranges and grapefruit, etc.
JYy0m TIL that in 1965 South Africa gave Israel 100 tonnes of uranium in exchange for just 30 grams of tritium
X0war TIL the earliest known toy trains were made in the 1850s and powered by alcohol fires and real steam. They had the tendency to start house fires due to their fuel leaking and igniting when the toy fell over. Earlier models had no safety valves and would explode due to excess boiler pressure.