› added 10 years ago

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TIL The Queen of England still maintains an official “champion” to fight on her behalf in duels.

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loxlA TIL that particle physicist John Ellis lost a bet and had to include the word "penguin" in his next scientific paper. After struggling to find a way to include the word, he "smoked some illegal substance" which gave him the inspiration for the now important Penguin Diagrams.
Oo9J4 TIL viruses are not alive because they do not have cells, they cannot turn food into energy, and without a host they are just inert packets of chemicals. Then I learned they are not exactly dead, either: They have genes, they reproduce, and they evolve through natural selection.
v1Aa4 TIL there was a product sold in the 80's and 90's called the "Electric Worm Getter". It was sold to fishermen for the collection of earthworms for bait. It sent an electric shock through the top layer of soil forcing the worms to surface. It had to be recalled in 1993 after 30 people died using it.
j0BN TIL that the Spain National Anthem has no official lyrics because they could not find an agreement on which ones to use.
grdjb TIL: The football huddle was first invented by a deaf college team (Gallaudet University) in 1894 to keep the opposing team (also deaf) from reading their plays which were signed in ASL