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TIL that ELVES are a rare type of red lightning that involves red flashes with a radius of 350 km (220 mi) which only last for 0.001 second. They form when an electromagnetic pulse shoots upward and causes the nitrogen molecules to glow scarlet.

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8av14 TIL Aaliyah maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA through her graduation from high school, saying "I don't want kids to think, 'I can just sing and forget about school.' I think it's very important to have an education, and even more important to have something to fall back on."
6ElLQ TIL: There's a school in India that teaches children to use both hands. Known as "The ambidextrous school". The students from this school can write six different languages and two different languages simultaneously.
1eZ7 TIL The when the city of Austin Texas asked people online to rename their Solid Waste Services Department, the winner was “The Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts”.
p8XLp TIL That Charlie Barnett a former street performer who would go on to fame on 'Miami Vice' was almost a member of the 1981 SNL cast. He was passed over after it was discovered he was functionally illiterate. His replacement was an equally unknown comedian named Eddie Murphy.
gr91b TIL that the original video for the Village People's YMCA did not have the iconic hand dance spelling out "YMCA." The dance was invented on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. The original did have a gesture that looked like a Y at the appropriate place.