› added 11 years ago

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TIL the Albuquerque Isotopes are a pro baseball team named after the Springfield Isotopes from the Simpsons. In one episode, Homer prevents the team from moving to ABQ with a hunger strike. Statues of Marge and Homer are at the stadium.

OGAg4 TIL a woman drowned in a Massachusetts public pool, but her body was not found until two and a half days later. Lifeguards were alerted right after she drowned, but they took no action. Health inspectors even inspected the pool while the woman lay dead at the bottom, but failed to find her corpse.
dNvQ TIL that during the Fukushima nuclear disaster, more than 200 retirees volunteered to replace younger workers at the facility. The volunteer group figures they have less than 20 years to live and will be dead before any radiation induced cancer develops.
N7bV8 TIL that in Taiwan, Father's Day is on August 8th. This was determined by the fact that the eighth (ba) day of the eighth (ba) month makes two "eights" (八八, ba-ba), which sounds similar to the colloquial word for "daddy" (ba-ba,爸爸)
bdWa TIL of Charles Alvin Beckwith, creator of the U.S. Army’s Delta Force unit. He once contracted leptospirosis so severe the doctors did not expect him to live; he made a full recovery in months. He was later critically wounded by a .50 round and expected to die. Within months, he fully recovered.
grwwb TIL Simple Minds initially rejected recording what would become their biggest hit “Don’t You Forget About Me”. Lead singer Kerr said, “We couldn't give a toss about teenage American schoolkids” (‘The Breakfast Club’ film the song was written for). Billy Idol had also passed up on recording the song.