› added 12 years ago

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TIL that researchers from the University of Sheffield polled 250 children regarding their opinions on clowns;all 250 children in the study, whose ages ranged between four and sixteen, reported that they found clowns frightening and disliked clowns as part of hospital decor.

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gMYeW TIL: During the Vietnam War one damaged American F-4 Phantom fighter pushed another damaged F-4 away from certain capture by resting the second airplane’s tail hook onto his own cockpit glass and pushing him to a safer location before both crews bailed out and were rescued the next day.
d8Vgr TIL nearly every major vehicle in the British Army is equipped with a boiling vessel (to make tea). This tradition started with tanks near the end of WWII. It was safer than the improvised cans filled with fuel, and it reduced break time.
LkD6p TIL the current chess grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen, intentionally plays non-book "inaccuracies" during opening (moves he knows aren't the best) to force the game into a non-book position ASAP so his opponents will have to think for themselves instead of going by memorised opening theory
N7Y8M TIL Sharks are able to feel the harts of fish beating, so playing heavy metal (or other music with low, rumbling frequency) will attract sharks, as they think the music is fish.
W7bYX TIL in 2006 a transplant heart was removed from a patient whose own heart had recovered. In 1995, surgeon Magdi Yacoub had not removed the original heart during the transplant surgery with the hope that if the patient's heart "was given a time out", it might eventually recover on its own.