› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Rory McCann [Sandor Clegane] lives a "solitary, transient" lifestyle, often living on a boat and in places without modern conveniences.

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XE7Ek TIL that 'Big Ben' is not the name of the actual tower, called the 'Elizabeth Tower', but the name of the 16 ton bell inside.
kOpXm TIL that the Lumière brothers, the inventors of motion picture, once said that "the cinema is an invention without any future" and gave up on the technology to go back to focusing on photography, so their involvement in the early history of film was quite brief
Lkv5v TIL that in the 1980s there was a persistent rumour in the UK that McDonald's was funding the Irish Republican Army. This was ultimately traced back to a U.S. talkshow where the company was praised for its generosity in funding Individual Retirement Accounts
wLGeE TIL the U.S. Navy tried to remove a whale carcass with dynamite. A veteran with explosives training warned the amount of dynamite was far too much – advice that went unheeded. His brand-new car, purchased during a "Get a Whale of a Deal" promotion, was then flattened by a chunk of falling blubber.
nW4MY TIL that 60 years ago 20% of East Asian young adults were near-sighted. Today 90% are. Scientists suspect this is due to a decrease in time spent outside during childhood.