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TIL the Voyager 1 spacecraft, currently more than 20 billion km from earth, is powered by a radioisotope with a half-life of 87.7 years. It has been slowly shutting down systems since 2007 to conserve energy, and by 2025 will go completely dark as it loses the ability to power a single instrument.

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ne9lY TIL that the small city of Jericho in the West Bank holds two records: It's the oldest continuously populated city known to date (settled 9000 BC, according to archaeologists). Located near the Dead Sea, Jericho is also the city with the lowest altitude on the planet, "rising" to −258 m (−846 ft).
n1jY TIL the primary reason why Ikea furniture is so inexpensive is its efficiency in packaging. Their chief goal in design is to figure out how to pack their furniture into a compact space and put more of them on each pallet.
6E1EX TIL that the word "mafia" originated from the Sicilian word "mafiusu," which can mean swagger, boldness or bravado. Sicily was once an Islamic emirate and one possible root for this word is the Arabic word "mahyāṣ" (مهياص), meaning aggressive boasting or bragging.
BlJx TIL the first call ever made on a cell phone, was from an engineer named Martin Cooper calling a rival engineer to brag about his accomplishment.
4XBRN TIL Ty Warner, creator of Beanie Babies, gave a woman who was dying of kidney disease $20,000 to get a banned stem cell treatment outside the US that could save her life. He only met her once, when he was lost and she gave him directions in a parking lot.