› added 10 years ago

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TIL two Frenchmen dueled each other from hot air balloons after discovering they “shared, rather too closely, a mutual acquaintance.” When a height of roughly 900 yards was achieved, the two fired shots. The first one to fire missed and was, in turn, sent to his death in a matter of seconds.

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k5mm TIL in 1999 the WHO found food irradiation so safe, they deemed “risk assessment” inappropriate because there was no risk (document p. 162; PDF p. 67)
ZNDa TIL during the Siege of Leningrad, the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra played Tchaikovsky’s 5th at a performance to boost morale. During the 2nd Movement, bombs started to fall nearby. The orchestra never stopped playing and continued to the last note.
6P5W TIL When a male and female lobster are ready to mate, they will fight with each other and do the lobster’s equivalent of urinating on each other’s faces.
jNpEj TIL that Blake Lively has a ton of acting siblings and half siblings. Her half sister was Teen Witch, her half brother was in National Lampoons European Vacation, her brother was in The L Word. Her BIL is Coach Bolton in High School Musical.
W7O9o TIL an 22-year-old Indian engineering student from Kerala, India has created a machine which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to write his homework in his own handwriting