› added 9 years ago

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TIL China sent seeds into space to see the effects of cosmic radiation on DNA. Some of the seeds had very useful mutations after being sent up.

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E14bX TIL about 'Auroville', founded in the 60's, is an experimental town located in India with no religion, money or government. It has a population of 2,500 to date.
ADXon TIL that songwriter Esther Dean composed “S&M” for Rihanna, then was later cast as Cynthia Rose in the Pitch Perfect movies. This means in the “riff-off” scene in the first movie, Esther got to sing her own song, but as a completely different person. Full circle.
Y7OpA TIL about "Operation Cat Drop" in 1959, where the British Royal Air Force airdropped cats into Borneo to control a rat infestation.
Q6LL TIL that Harold Gillies is considered to be the father of plastic surgery; after the first world war he performed thousands of surgeries mostly for soldiers with facial injuries, usually from gunshot wounds
6EKJm TIL that since 1979 the German Parliament has had a member who does not exist.