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TIL that before the Columbian Exchange, there were no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no potatoes in Ireland, no coffee in Colombia, no pineapples in Hawaii, no rubber trees in Africa, no chili peppers in Thailand, no tomatoes in Italy, and no chocolate in Switzerland.

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R59Ow TIL that the anticoagulant coumadin (aka warfarin) was derived from a substance found in moldy clover that was killing cattle. The name "warfarin" comes from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which sponsored the research.
Lk8vr TIL that 1000's of Sperm Whales were killed each year to make car automatic transmission fluid. The practice was only halted in the 1970s by the Endangered Species Act.
v1O6K TIL that the US Food & Drug Administration keeps extending the deadline for the biggest food chains to comply with nearly decade-old federal calorie disclosure laws
e0nJg TIL dying stars cause space to smell like "hot metal, diesel fumes and barbecue." Astronauts have also compared the smell of the moon to "spent gunpowder."
v1wAL TIL that there was a persistent myth that a race of pygmy humans lived in Tennessee. In reality, these were normal bones of Native Americans secondarily buried in short stone coffins.