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TIL At the height of WW1, a German-American miner was lynched by a hysterical anti-German mob in Illinois. The participants were all promptly acquitted by a jury, with the Washington Post stating that although the murder was bad, it was a ‘healthful and wholesome’ show of patriotism.

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paQA TIL That there is an incandescent light bulb in California, known as the Centennial Light, that has stayed lit nearly continuously since 1910. It is known as the worlds longest-lasting light bulb and often sparks controversy that modern light bulbs are designed to fail.
R7vOl TIL - Joerg Buttgereit (director of Nekromantik) created concept and characters for a lost XBox\PS2 game
e0mmb TIL that the practice of playing music for callers on hold began with a faulty phone line connection. A loose wire touching the steel frame of an office building caused it to act as a giant radio receiver, allowing callers to hear music from local radio stations while they waited on hold.
KOoVQ TIL that there are orchids whose flowers look like female bees. When males try to mate with them, they transfer pollen. The Ophrys Apifera species mimics a bee species that went extinct long ago. So, the only memory of the bee is a painting by a dying flower.
b96YZ The rise of Genghis Khan and the Mongolian empire was responsible for the annihilation of an estimated 40 million people, but there were clearly more than a few conquests off the battlefield as well. A 2003 study suggests that 1 in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Studies of Y-chromosome data found that almost 8 percent of men living in the former Mongolian empire carry nearly identical Y chromosomes. Researchers believe this is attributed to a unique set of social selection circumstances put into play by the spread of the Mongolian empire. In this week’s "Today I Learned," research scientist Albert Lin elaborates on Genghis Khan as a romantic.