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TIL that eyeglasses are so expensive because the market is dominated by one company: Luxottica. They are the makers of the vast majority of the name brands and also own Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, and Lens Crafters.

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a89Z9 TIL about Phobos 1, a Soviet space probe launched to study Mars' moon. It shut down before ever reaching Mars because a technician left out a single hyphen in one of the keyed commands. All commands were supposed to be proofread by a computer before being transmitted, but the computer malfunctioned.
wLx6Y TIL that cats are lactose intolerant
neWjo TIL that when NASA sent out the Voyager spacecrafts in 1977, two golden records were included aboard which contained images, coded diagrams and sounds — including a message from President Carter — that portrayed life and culture on Earth in case any intelligent alien life form found the spacecrafts.
jpxj TIL that scientists kept a species of fruit fly in complete darkness for 57 years (1400 generations), showing genetic alterations that occur as a result of environmental conditions.
XoKr TIL that Mt. Fuji should have erupted two years ago, and will likely erupt by 2015.