› added 13 years ago

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TIL that there is a shipwreck in the Thames Estuary containing at least 1,400 tonnes of TNT high explosives including 2,000 cases of cluster bombs and if it exploded could be one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever and create a small tsunami.

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via reddit.com

P1GVw TIL that Magnus Carlsen, one of the greatest chess players of all time, has never lost 3 or more classical chess games in a row in his adult professional career. The last time he lost 3 games in a row was in 2003, when he was 12.
4XB7N TIL about Zell Kravinsky, who donated his kidney to a poor African American man. He calculated the chances of dying from the procedure at 1 in 4,000, and said "to withhold a kidney from someone who would otherwise die means valuing one’s own life at 4,000 times that of a stranger".
XEx8X TIL long term radiation damages the cameras on the ISS. Also, astronauts occasionally see flashes of light as heavy ions or charged particles crash through their skull and fire off photo receptor cells in their eyes despite being closed.
78VdZ TIL In 1933 Charlie Chaplin burned his unreleased film A Woman of the Sea (1926) because he was unsatisfied with the final product and for tax purposes.
p8NAQ TIL the arctic woolly bear moth, native to arctic Canada and Greenland, is known for its slow rate of development. Its caterpillar life cycle may extend up to 7 years with molting occurring each spring. While in dormancy, the larvae can withstand temperatures as low as −70 °C.