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TIL a Thai farmer, Chaleo Yoovidhya invented a drink called Krating Dang, which became popular with truck drivers and workers. A German, Dietrich Mateschitz traveled to Thailand, drank it, which cured his jet lag. He then found Red Bull with Yoovidhya, whom owns 51% share of the company to this day.

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gMm0b TIL The US Military still uses 8 inch floppy disks on outdated IBM computers to run the nuclear missile systems. It's because they are incredibly hard to hack. The computers are essentially air-gapped and the old IBM computers are reliable. They could run for another 40 years with spare parts.
XEBpR TIL Usain Bolt suffers from scoliosis and has one leg slightly shorter than the other, as a result of that.
P19ME TIL when Prince Charles visited the MAS*H soundstage, series writer Ken Levine was told how to properly address him. Instead, Levine asked him, "What advice would you give young people thinking of getting into your profession?" His handlers were horrified, but the prince laughed.
9oYX TIL the phrase “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” was originally meant to describe an absurdly impossible action. The phrase is an adynation, a figure of speech in the form of hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to insinuate a complete impossibility.
9YrJ7 TIL that, once the Civil War began, Confederate general Robert E. Lee's plantation outside Washington DC was repurposed by the Lincoln administration to house a camp for escaped slaves. It contained a school, hospital, and cemetery, and it is now the site of Arlington National Cemetery.