› added 5 years ago

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TIL about the Eisriesenwelt, a natural limestone and ice cave in Austria. It is the largest ice cave in the world, extending more than 42km and the frozen lake inside the cave, during the Second World War, was used by skating athletes to train for the Olympics.

GYgxE TIL that in "Oblomov", the second novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, it takes the protagonist the first 50 pages, to get up from bed, and move to a chair.
p8PEp TIL that on 5 May 2000 two young Filipino programmers created the Iloveyou virus that attacked tens of millions of Windows personal computers causing US$5.5–8.7 billion in damages worldwide. Since there were no laws in the Phils. against writing malware at the time the two were released.
DQEYv TIL after ABC executives & producers encouraged Margaret Cho to go on a crash diet, while filming her TV series All-American Girl in 1994, she lost 30 lbs (14 kg) in 2 weeks. This resulted in her hospitalization for kidney failure & led to major health issues that continued for years after the show.
groDb TIL about Project Genetrix which was a United States Air Force program designed to launch General Mills manufactured surveillance balloons over China, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to take aerial photographs and collect intelligence.
QNRnL TIL that prisoners in a Russian penal colony near Moscow used a cat to smuggle drugs. The cat was found with 5.79 grams of hashish and 1.56 grams of amphetamine hidden under its collar. Both the defense and prosecution lawyers wanted to use the cat as evidence to support their cases.