› added 7 years ago

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TIL that in 2004, scientists engineered goats whose milk could save more than 500,000 kids who die each year from diarrheal diseases — that's more than the number of deaths from AIDS, malaria, and measles combined — but the government has left it languishing in regulatory limbo.

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Zpaa4 TIL: About a company that is genetically engineering poplar trees (already fast-growing, asexually spreading trees) to reduce their energy needs by adding metabolic genes from pumpkins and algae. The engineered trees grow 1.5x than controls. They've planted 600 trees in Oregon and plan to do more.
8eryZ TIL that Thomas Jefferson's tombstone was removed at the request of his family and replaced by a larger replica because visitors were chipping off pieces for souvenirs. The original tombstone is at the University of Missouri, in Columbia.
g0w7 TIL in 2001 Florida passed a law requiring single mothers to publish their full names and physical descriptions in a newspaper along with a list of the last 5 men they’d had sex with before they could put children up for adoption
JYmPk TIL Brazil has nearly 60,000 murders a year, more than the US, Canada, Australia, all of Europe, China, and many Asian countries combined.
BYyx TIL Nicolas Cage had magic mushrooms with his cat, Lewis. Seeing Lewis eating the shrooms, Cage responded, “What the heck, I better do it with him.” Cage recalls laying in bed for hours and staring at Lewis, as Lewis stared back. Cage concluded sagely, “and I had no doubt that he was my brother.”