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TIL that the tumbleweed originally came from Russia

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via reddit.com

XE5xk TIL that in 2006, Channel 4's "Gadget Show" tested the durability of an 'Indestructible USB' by cooking it with propane, freezing it with dry ice, submerging it in acidic liquids, running over it in a Jeep, and firing it against a wall with a mortar cannon - all data was recovered from the USB.
X1Qr TIL Twenty years ago 29,000 rubber ducks fell overboard and they still float around the seas.
oy5o TIL that Iceland let its banks fail instead of bailing them out. In 2008, the country started over from square one after paying off loans for consumers, forgiving homeowner debt, and throwing the offenders responsible in prison. Its economy is now growing faster than the US and European economies.
0Opv TIL that researchers did an analysis of the staggering amounts of benzoylecgonine (cocaine excretions in the urine) found in the Po River in Italy and determined the daily amount of cocaine being used by the people that fed into the river to be 8.8lbs.
awLrM TIL that a 99-year lease was, under historic common law, the longest possible term of a lease of real property. It is no longer the law in most common law jurisdictions today, yet 99-year leases continue to be common as a matter of business practice.