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TIL that "Flash Gordon" is Queen Elizabeth II's favourite film, and she watches it with her grandchildren every Christmas. When actor Brian Blessed met the Queen, she asked him that if he doesn't mind, because she had the grandchildren there, would he mind saying "Gordon’s alive"?

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via reddit.com

nyw7 TIL the French once used targets with white bullseyes. The French word for “white” is “blanc”, which is similar to the English word “blank”. This is the origin of “point-blank range”, essentially meaning “close enough to point directly at your target”.
jNV8N TIL That Chicago is named after an onion. "The name Chicago derives from 17th century French rendering of a Native American term for ramps (Allium tricoccum), a type of edible wild leek, which grew abundantly near the river. The river, and its region, were named after this plant."
WEE9 TIL that of the 100+ people to die in the building of the Hoover Dam, the first and last to perish were a father and son who plummeted to their death 13 years to the day apart.
5VMLR TIL about the RNA world hypothesis, according to which the many key roles of RNA in protein synthesis, such as the ribozyme nature of the peptidyl transferase activity of the ribosome, suggest that RNA evolved as an informational biopolymer before proteins and even before DNA.
dVKE TIL that a Congolese Mbuti pygmy, Ota Benga, was ‘exhibited’ at the Bronx Zoo in the monkey house as an example of “earlier stages of human evolution” in 1906.