› added 12 years ago

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TIL that HeLa, the oldest human cell line used in scientific research, is derived from cervical cancer cells of a patient in 1951 and is so self-persistent that it is considered by some to be its own species.

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yQJ4M TIL that there are people in the Canary Islands who communicate by whistling.
awYny TIL Because the number 8 is considered very lucky in Chinese culture, a Chinese man spent the equivalent of 1 millions RMB to secure a license plate reading '88888' in the hope of increasing his luck, to get pulled over 8 times by cops who thought the plate was a fake.
QJX96 TIL of the Raines Sandwich. In 1896, New York passed the Raines law to reduce Sunday drinking. The law had a loophole allowing bars to serve alcohol only with a meal. Staff added a sandwich to every drink order, then took it away, serving it to the next customer - the sandwich often lasted all day.
X011P TIL that two scientists realised that the very same AI/ML technology they developed to discover medicines for rare diseases could also discover 40,000 new chemical weapons in under a day.
w1JE TIL Dennis Rodman is the oldest sibling out of a total of 47 children.