› added 3 years ago

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TIL that Simpsons episode where Krustyburger nearly goes bankrupt from giving out free burgers when USA won gold medals is based on fact, and this actually happened with McDonald's when the USSR boycotted the 1984 games

4Qpa TIL: the Ogallala Aquifer, the aquifer that is responsible for supplying water for 30% of the United States agriculture, may be depleted by the 2028. The cause: over farming, as well as the coal and oil industries.
16ZZO TIL about Evangelista Torricelli, an Italian physicist and mathematician, and his groundbreaking creation of a vacuum. In 1643, he invented the barometer, an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure that led to his famous observation that, "We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of air."
ADOWl TIL That due to animals matching the output of acorns, oak trees will have a "Masting" year. A masting year will see a tree produce tons of extra nuts to prevent from all seeds being eaten. All trees in an area will do it at the same time for some unknown reason.
OoZOg TIL that during WWI, there was limited supplies of cotton, so doctors used sphagnum moss for bandages. It can hold 22x its own weight in liquid and is a natural antiseptic.
16BJ4 TIL that Abe Lincoln's son represented Robert E Lee's son in a Supreme Court Case to reclaim Arlington Cemetery as Lee Jr's personal home; he shortly thereafter sold it right back to the US Gov't. The wiki chain was Band of Brothers author Stephen Ambrose -> Historian Hesseltine -> Wash/Lee Uni