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TIL in 1963 a 16 year old sent a four-question survey to 150 well-known authors (75 of which replied) in order to prove to his English teacher that writers don’t intentionally add symbolic content to their books.

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E1DKd TIL the Unisphere, built in Queens, NY for the 1964 World’s Fair, had lights representing the capitals of the nations of the world, including one indicating the location of the Kahnawake Indian Reservation for the Mohawk Indians who helped build the monument.
mx1dE If it’s a particularly contagious virus, it would spread across the planet in a year. “If it starts in New York, it’s going to be in London certainly within a week,” says Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle who uses computer models to analyze how viruses globe-trot. “And from there, it will quickly travel to the rest of North America and Europe.” For Longini’s computer forecasts to become reality, though, certain conditions would need to be met.
kmRB TIL that because of an old superstition, several ravens are kept at the Tower of London at all times. These ravens are enlisted soldiers of the Kingdom, and have occasionally been dismissed for bad conduct. While wild ravens live for 10-15 years, Tower ravens can live past 40 years.
5VQOn TIL about the thymus, a small (1 oz.) organ behind the sternum that trains new white blood cells to NOT attack the body's own cells. Only 2% survive this rigorous training program; the rest commit suicide to prevent themselves from attacking friendly cells.
5Pb8 TIL Sega was actually an American company that started in Hawaii and moved to Japan to distribute coin-operated jukeboxes, games, and slot machines to military installations.