› added 6 years ago

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TIL Concerned about the number of cobras in Delhi, British colonial officials created a bounty, only to discover secret cobra farms created to collect the bounty. When the officials shut down the program the farms released their snakes, meaning they had far more cobras than before they started.

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x7N5 TIL that after a woman’s lung collapsed on a flight, two doctors performed surgery with the aircraft’s medical kit, along with a coat hanger, Sellotape, a knife and fork, a bottle of water, and five star brandy for disinfectant. The woman felt better after ten minutes.
R97a TIL the “W-D” in WD-40 stands for Water Displacement.
6eMY TIL that in 1978, the engineer of Citicorp Center, one of the 10 tallest buildings in NYC, discovered a fatal flaw in the building’s structure. A massive, secretive plan, was set in motion to correct the flaw before the building toppled over and killed thousands.
XxBR TIL that humans used crop rotation 8,000 years ago. As far back as 6000 BC, farmers alternated planting crops each year. They did not understand the chemistry, but knew that doing so kept the soil healthy for good harvests.
a870Z TIL there is a 5,614km long fence in Australia to separate dingos from other animals in the country. It is called the dingo-fence and was built in the 1880s.