› added 11 years ago

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TIL Grand Central Station, due to it’s granite construction, is radioactive enough to fail an inspection if it were a nuclear power station.

Read more world-nuclear.org

via reddit.com

b6gLN TIL that Kurt Cobain got the inspiration to make Nirvana's famous song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" when Kathleen Hanna, the singer of the band "Bikini Kill" wrote "Kurt smells like teen spirit" on a board. Teen Spirit was a woman's deodorant and he didn't knew it until he was done with the song.
kJZO7 TIL that a 2006 study showed those who knew they were being prayed for and shared the religious belief of those praying were less likely to recover than those not receiving prayers after heart surgery.
9MrD TIL that the distorted words in CAPTCHAs (the anti-spam feature) are all taken from old books and newspapers. By identifying the words, users are actually helping to transcribe these printed sources to the internet. As a result, the entire New York Times archive is now searchable back to 1850.
X0Xgj TIL that Comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest comet to make repeated close approaches to Earth. A collision would release 27 times the energy of the impact that caused the extinction of dinosaurs. It has been described as "the single most dangerous object known to humanity".
nwlo TIL in 2014 a cat was badly burned in a house fire that left him blind. He needed over 24 operations and a 1.5 year stay in an animal hospital. Despite his injuries, he offered comfort to every new animal to enter the clinic: fawn, dog, hamster or bird, by snuggling beside them on arrival.