› added 12 years ago

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TIL that a 15 year-old boy stole one of those giant Caterpillar Earth movers and took off on a 12 mile joyride all the way across Tucson, knocking down power poles and running red lights at 30+mph. Police were basically unable to stop him until he hit a dead end and they shot him.

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j6PMa TIL Zhang Zongchang, a Chinese warlord, had proclaimed that he would return only in a coffin if he was defeated in battle. When his forces were pushed back in a campaign, he was true to his word—he was paraded through the streets, sitting in his coffin and smoking a cigar
axaA TIL of a magician with the name of Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, who was asked by Louis-Napoleon to suppress a possible rebellion in French-controlled Algeria using his magic tricks and he succeed in doing so.
R7VZ7 TIL that while filming Armageddon, Ben Affleck asked director Michael Bay, why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers, and was told to shut the fuck up.
4Brb TIL there are only 40 “LEGO Master Model Builders” in the world who get to build LEGOs for a living; there is also a “Master Builder Academy” where you can prep for a multi-round competition for the job.
b6Wja TIL about vitrification of nuclear waste, wherein nuclear waste is melted down and combined with molten glass. The mixture is cooled in stainless steel canisters where it becomes a solid and can be stored or buried indefinitely with no risk of leakage or contamination to the environment.