› added 6 years ago

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TIL that John P. O'Neill, counter terror expert and head of FBI National Security Division who spent many years investigating Al Qaeda, retired in early August 2001 and started his new job later that same month - as Head of Security at the World Trade Center. He died there on September 11.

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R7l07 TIL that in 1924, H. P. Lovecraft was hired to ghostwrite a story for Harry Houdini about Houdini's supposedly true escape from an Egyptian cult. Lovecraft lost the only copy on the way to his own wedding, and spent much of his honeymoon rewriting it with his wife's help.
9Y9pr TIL the black soldier fly larva turns most organic substances into nutrient-rich protein and frass, a valuable organic fertilizer. Significant reductions in E. coli and Salmonella were measured in manure after larvae were introduced in it. They can also purify biomass contaminated with heavy metals.
WkkDB TIL european DNA has two strands that when plotted against each other reveals a political map of the continent.
Lkn1Z TIL Samuel Clemons got his pen name of "Mark Twain" from when he worked with steamboats; it was the measurement of a river depth of 12 feet, which was a safe depth for the boats.
VBnBm TIL Texas produces the most renewable energy in the US