› added 9 years ago

105

TIL that suicide is a more common cause of death than murder.

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OleL TIL environmental activist group Greenpeace once accidentally released a fact sheet which said “In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world’s worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]”.
OXaY TIL a UK man became paralyzed after a cycling accident and spent 4 years raising £22,000 to pay for pioneering treatment that might help him walk again. However, upon hearing about a disabled boy needing surgery (that stood a better chance of success), he donated all the money to him instead.
QJ8na TIL in the late 80s NASA studied house plants as a means of providing cleaner and purer air for their space stations. They found Peace Lilies and Chrysanthemums to be the best all rounders at air filtering.
QJDrd TIL that Tyrannosaurus rex's tiny arms were actually extremely strong and are speculated to have been used to grasp struggling prey while it was killed by the tyrannosaur's enormous jaws, assist the tyrannosaur when rising from a prone position and grasp a mate during copulation.
6EnEm TIL 'An American Family' is widely considered to be the first reality TV series, first airing on PBS in 1973. Over 300 hours of footage of the Loud family was condensed into 12, one hour episodes documenting family drama resulting from a separation of Bill and Pat Loud.