› added 7 years ago

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TIL Workers who cut up pineapples eventually lose their fingerprints due to the action of the proteolytic enzyme, bromelain, that dissolves them.

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d9gj TIL that in 1977 Saturday Night Live had an “Anyone Can Host” contest and the winner was an 80-year old woman named Miskel Spillman.
X0VkX TIL, the world's expensive coffee, the civet coffee (kopi luwak) was discovered during Dutch colonial rule when farmers try to "smuggle" coffee using civet's digestive system
xVgO7 TIL about the Steinway Tower, 111 West 57th, the thinnest skyscraper in the world. The tower is the 3rd tallest in New York (1,438ft /84 story) with a width-to-height ratio of 1:24. The 60ft-wide base is less than the length of a tennis court (78ft)
78Q4b TIL In 1815, Jefferson sold his 6,700-volume personal library to Congress for $23,950 to replace books lost when the British burned the U.S. Capitol, which housed the Library of Congress, during the War of 1812. Jefferson's books formed the foundation of the rebuilt Library of Congress's collections
kOdp4 TIL that 2 men were convicted of theft after taking over a thousand copies of free newspapers and selling them to a recycling plant - indicating that something given away for free can be stolen.