› added 4 years ago

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TIL that the guns of the HMS Belfast, moored on the River Thames, are permanently aimed at a London Gateway Services, a motorway service station some 11.7 miles away

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xV45b TIL Crosby, Stills and Nash are in the wrong order on the front cover of their first album, causing confusion for generations of fans. By the time they'd decided which order their names should be in, the house in the photo had been demolished and so they couldn't reshoot.
L4Om TIL that there is a scientific measurement for the ‘risk of death’ of any action: the micromort. If an activity is rated as one micromort, you would have a one in a million chance of dying while doing it. Running a marathon is ~7 micromorts, sky diving 10, and climbing Mount Everest 40,000!
bZb0 TIL that when Screamin’ Jay Hawkins set out to record “I Put A Spell On You” he envisioned it as “a refined ballad”. Before recording, however, he got incredibly drunk, and recorded the version you hear today.
wa6o TIL that losing an hour of sleep when daylight savings puts the clocks forward causes a 25% increase in heart attacks on the following Monday. They reduce by 21% when clocks go back.
NXpMJ TIL that the human stomach can dissolve razor blades