› added 11 years ago

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TIL many people in New Mexico saw the Trinity nuclear test from a distance, but the Army downplayed it as an ammunition magazine explosion

awd8o TIL Sunflower (Helianthus tuberosus) root, also called Jersualem artichokes or Sunchokes, are native to North America. Native Americans were first to cultivate sunflower roots for food. Resists cold, drought, wind. The roots contain inulin, which is firmly established to decrease blood cholesterol.
D10GP TIL of “The Milk”. In 1994, a student at MIT bought a carton of milk but forgot to use it, and rediscovered it 10 months later. Instead of binning it he threw a ‘birthday’ for it. A cult following developed for this legendary expired dairy product. In 2015 it celebrated its 21st birthday.
4X8DR TIL: Blizzard Entertainment buried encrypted text in their anti-cheat software and a useless function which delivered the encryption key for hackers to find. It was a youtube link to a rick roll
d8moK TIL 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered each year, and just a single one is enough to kill fish in a stream. Cigarette fragments have been found in 70 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of sea turtles.
NX0lJ TIL of the 1866 shipwreck of the General Grant near New Zealand. Of the 83 on board only 15 survived the sinking and became castaways on Auckland Island. After nine months four of the survivors attempted to row for help and were never seen again. After 16 months the last survivors were rescued.