› added 10 months ago

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TIL In many studies, children with myopic parents have been shown to be more likely myopic compared with those with non-myopic parents. However, There seems to be no genetic linkage between low and high myopia or degree of vision problems

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N8Je TIL that the second flag of the Confederate States of America was, in the words of its creator W.T. Thompson, a symbol of the “supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race”.
Ypy9A TIL: Up until the 1950's, NYC had an abundance of wild marijuana plants, with some in Brooklyn growing as high as seven feet tall. They were all eventually eradicated by the Department of Sanitation, destroying nearly 41,000 pounds of wild weed.
awO4A TIL about Marcel Petiot, a french serial killer known as Doctor Satan. After his murders were discovered, he assumed a new identity, joined the French Resistance, and eventually wound up on the search team for himself. After his identity was discovered, he got the guillotine.
6ErDQ TIL the design for the Sears Tower was discovered accidentally when architect Bruce Graham was pulling a cigarette out of his pack and they stuck together.
mx1dE If it’s a particularly contagious virus, it would spread across the planet in a year. “If it starts in New York, it’s going to be in London certainly within a week,” says Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle who uses computer models to analyze how viruses globe-trot. “And from there, it will quickly travel to the rest of North America and Europe.” For Longini’s computer forecasts to become reality, though, certain conditions would need to be met.