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TIL about the 1947 Texas City Disaster: A ship carrying ammonium nitrate, among other cargo, exploded. The resulting detonation was felt in Louisiana, recorded by a seismograph in Denver, CO, and caused a 15-foot tidal wave. The blast and devastation has been likened to a small-scale Hiroshima.

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Yp7m7 Consider the autoclave, which scientists use to sterilize tools and which issues scalding steam to do so. Or consider the heat gun, which is used to dry glassware and to warm distillation devices. It can also ignite anything flammable that gets too close. Glass containers in a vacuum can implode, spraying shards everywhere. Centrifuge rotors can fail, causing explosions that throw shock waves throughout a lab filled with chemicals. Steel vessels built to contain liquids and gases at hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch can rupture, hurling metal at lab workers.
0dmVM TIL that as teenagers, Simon and Garfunkel used to refer to themselves as Tom and Jerry
O8ja TIL that the end of a tape mesaure is supposed to move back and forth to account for its own width in inside/outside measurements
rNeZw TIL about Arthur Arndt, a German physician whose family became the largest known group of Jews to survive by hiding in Nazi Germany.
yYop TIL in 2012 50 Detroit students were suspended for demanding an education, consistent teachers and schoolbooks.