› added 9 years ago

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TIL measuring 4086mi^2, the largest salt pan Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is so flat that rain can’t drain, creating the world’s largest natural mirror. It’s also 5x better for satellite calibration than the surface of the ocean, and an elevation measurement accuracy of 0.8 inches

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9w6m6 TIL that approximately 700 years before the Great Pyramids were built, there was a royal bloodline in Ireland, aka Atlantis
110d TIL Jimmy the Greek Snyder bet $10,000 at 17–1 odds on Harry Truman to defeat Thomas Dewey in the 1948 election, because Dewey had a mustache and “American women didn’t trust men with a mustache”. In today’s dollars, that bet netted him over $1.7 Million.
wLk41 TIL Tetris is addictive because it presents a continuous stream of incomplete tasks. Fulfilling those tasks gives players a constant sense of achievement.
KOka TIL Nazi Germany disrupted the viewing of the anti-war movie “All Quiet on the Western Front” by releasing rats in theaters
OGYla TIL dolphins are voluntary air breathers and it has been suggested they can kill themselves by consciously stopping breathing