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TIL an underground system governs the turf that China’s beggars can work: able-bodied beggars who intrude on territory reserved for the disabled or elderly are beaten

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GYa4G TIL what Smartdust is... Smartdust is defined as a system of many tiny microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) such as sensors, robots, or other devices, that can detect, for example, light, temperature, vibration, magnetism, or chemicals. They are usually operated on a computer network wirelessly...
VBdPk TIL That following the Messinian salinity crisis, during which the Mediterranean almost completely dried up for 630,000 years, 5.33 Ma ago the Zanclean flood happened: water broke through the Gibraltar Strait, filling the Mediterranean within months at 100,000,000 m³/s – 1,000x flow of the Amazon!
D1blY TIL that during the 50s til 70s the UK Foreign Office had a program of destroying or hiding files from its ex-colonies, as they gained independence, if they that could embarrass the UK government. This happened in over 20 countries and included documents pertaining to torture and racial biases.
grno4 TIL Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt was allergic to moon dust.
N75YM TIL about Wonderland. A Boeing bomber facotory from WWII on the West coast that built a fake residential town on its roof to camouflage it from potential ememy airstrikes