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TIL that David Hahn, the "Radioactive Boy Scout" was arrested in 2007 when someone saw him stealing a smoke detector. A search of his apartment found 16 more. Smoke detectors were one of the items he used to get the radioactive material to build the breeder reactor in his mom's shed in 1994.

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lo57r TIL the end of a Ponzi scheme led to a Civil War in Albania where more than half the population had participated in various schemes.
OoA67 TIL that, Nepalese Gurkha Tul Bahadur Pun, recipient of the Victoria Cross during WWII, had his application for settlement in the UK initially denied on the ground that he had "failed to demonstrate strong ties with the UK."
p8Xo4 TIL about the Windows XP wallpaper. The image is called "Bliss" and it's a supposedly unedited image of a hill found on the Los Carneros American Viticultural Area. The photographer, Charles O'Rear, says he took it on his way to visit his girlfriend. Eventually in 2000, he was contacted by Microsoft
e0enb TIL that in 1846, Hunt invented the lockstitch sewing machine, and suggested to his daughter that she manufacture the device. When she pointed out to him that this machine would put many poor women in the garment industry out of work, hunt dropped the idea and never patented his invention.
4XGeo TIL that Clan McDuck, of 'DuckTales' and the old Carl Barks Disney comics, has a tartan registered with the official Scottish Register of Tartans. It was created in 1942 and used to sell war bonds.