› added 1 year ago

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TIL: The Colorado River is going to dry up in about two years. Reservoirs could drop so low by 2025 that water would no longer flow past Hoover Dam to Arizona, California and Mexico.

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O996 TIL in the 80’s, Australian beer companies had to change the design of their bottles so a species of beetle would stop trying to mate with them
Zp44Y TIL Orion Pictures felt the 1989 film UHF would be more successful if it was PG-rated. To do it, two scenes would have been removed: one where a man gets his thumb cut off with a table saw and one where poodles were thrown out a window. Weird Al refused and did not regret it. No poodles were harmed.
4xQJ TIL Benjamin Franklin once sent classified letters to American revolutionaries detailing how the British were attempting to decrease American morale by gradually suppressing basic liberties, effectively making Franklin one of the first American “whistle-blowers”.
v1abK TIL sunglasses made of smoky quartz were used in 12th century China not to protect from the sun’s rays, but to be used in courts to hide judges facial expressions
oDmA TIL The Three Alls Policy was a Japanese scorched earth policy adopted in China during World War II, the three “alls” being “kill all, burn all, loot all.” The Policy, sanctioned by Emperor Hirohito himself, was responsible for the deaths of “more than 2.7 million” Chinese civilians.