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TIL that Marijuana (and hemp) in the US was actively suppressed by some of the richest men in the country to protect their interests in the newsprint and nylon markets.

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69BQm TIL In the 1900s, German was the dominant language for science (thanks to Einstein, Planck, Heisenberg and others). It was only until mid 1990s that English firmly established itself as the main language.
KOeVB TIL of the Sloot Digital Coding System which allegedly could compress a whole movie to 8kb, but the creator died before releasing the code and only parts of it have been recovered
xV86B TIL that average millionaire went bankrupt at least 3.5 times
E1Xbd TIL Paddy Chayefsky, author of cult film 'Network', was hugely successful in the 50s but by the 70s was out of work, forgotten, and suicidal. The legendary 'Mad as Hell' speech was his own personal thoughts, and reflected his own view of the world at that time.
LQ6rr TIL about FADs (fish aggregating devices), which are man-made floats or buoys tethered to the ocean floor. Fish are fascinated with and aggregate in considerable numbers around floating objects which provide a “visual stimulus in an optical void.” 1/3 of global tuna are caught using FADs.