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TIL sporting goods company Wilson was started in 1913 as a way to use animal by-products from New York slaughterhouses. Its first products were strings for tennis rackets and violins

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ADeYa TIL Saskatchewan was a hotbed of LSD research in the 1950s with a 50% success rate in treating alcoholism and and architect using LSD used the infamous hospitals to make future institutions more comfortable for the mentally ill.
wA5M TIL that it was common belief in Medieval Europe that a magnet would lose its strength when in the presence of- among other things - garlic, goats’ blood and diamonds. This was disproved by surrounding a lodestone with 75 diamonds, then picking it up with a lump of iron.
XEVwR TIL that up to 80% of the USA's cash carries detectable amounts of cocaine
wLAmY TIL there are several philosophical razors--not just Occam's Razor (simpler explanations are likely correct). One is called Newton's Flaming Laser Sword because it is, "Much sharper and more dangerous than Occam's Razor." It states that what cannot be settled by experiment ought not be debated.
BVPW TIL 80% males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 did not survive World War II.