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TIL Heinrich Otto Wieland researched bile acids, toad poisons and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Wieland also protected people, especially Jewish students, who were "racially burdened" after the Nuremberg Laws. Expelled students could stay in his group as chemists

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yQL88 TIL During the Cold War the US began work on a huge secret telescope. The plan was to use the moon as a reflector, to spy on bounced signals from the USSR. It would have been double the size of the largest steerable telescope ever built to this day. All that remains now is the concrete foundation.
4XApJ TIL that in South Korea it is illegal to sell phones with unremovable software that is not critical to system operation or maintenance.
BgNRL TIL that in 1944, Germany was spending 75% of it's GDP on military expenditure.
jEvp TIL that Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptists Church was a life-long Democrat, running for office repeatedly and serving as a delegate for Al Gore in the 1988 Democrat presidential primary.
M07 TIL Ford uses ping pong balls to measure interior volume.