› added 9 years ago

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TIL after days of hiding it from the world, Soviet was forced to acknowledge the Chernobyl disaster after an engineer at a power plant 1000miles away in Sweden surprisingly noticed radiation on his shoes on his way INTO the plant. They traced the wind patterns and reported the location of the source

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b9Mda TIL the Mormon Church maintains a $100 billion investment fund meant for religious, education, and charitable purposes, exceeding the combined net worths of the world's largest university endowment (Harvard University) and the world's largest philanthropic foundation (Gates Foundation)
Wk7KB TIL that Balthasar Gérard, assassin of William I of Orange (ancestor of the Dutch monarchy) received a torture and execution that was gruesome even by the standards of his time. Part of the execution decree stated that "his heart should be torn from his bosom and flung in his face."
oBJ0A TIL The TV series 'Hannibal' had a shot of a naked flayed couple. NBC thought this was unacceptable because their buttcracks were fully visible. The director offered to fill their buttcracks with blood to make it less offensive. NBC agreed.
QNyEM TIL Airport runway numbers aren't sequential, they are based off compass bearings. Runway 9 would be 90 degrees, runway 27 is 270 degrees...
GYvv5 TIL the rhinoceros viper is found in the forests of West and Central Africa. This colorful and nocturnal viper is considered to be one of the most venomous snakes in Africa, producing both a neurotoxic as well as hemotoxic venom, although very few cases of human envenomation have ever been reported.