› added 13 years ago

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TIL that the Tenth Amendment (powers not delegated to Federal gov’t are reserved for states or people) is considered to be superfluous and self-evident, with the Supreme Court even ruling that it “added nothing to the Constitution as originally ratified.”

JYPg1 TIL in 1978 an undergrad student notified the chief structural engineer of Citicorp Center in Manhattan that the building would collapse in strong winds. Realizing the student was correct, the chief contacted NYPD and had a 10-block emergency plan drawn up while they quickly fixed the building.
oByZR TIL that the Pentagon has a full-blown battle plan against zombies, for in-house training. In this document, zombies are categorized, from "evil, magic" zombies to "vegetarian" zombies which groan "graaaains" instead of the usual "braaaains".
VB1PB TIL about the Obliteration Room housed in London where visitors are invited to cover over with stickers to eliminate the traces of the original white room through the act of communal “obliteration.”
x6Qjo TIL in Western Europe in the 19th century, women swimmers were encouraged to wear a bathing gown made of wool, with weights sewn into the hems so that they would not rise up in the water. Such measures to protect "modesty" were common in the era when women began competing in modern Olympic swimming
JYBQk TIL one of the Soviet space dogs' puppy, Pushinka, was given by Khrushchev to Kennedy as a gift. One of Kennedy's dog, Charlie, took a liking to Pushinka, resulting in the birth of four pups referred jokingly by Kennedy as "pupniks".