› added 12 years ago

188

TIL Turtles can breathe in through their butts.

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jNgXp TIL that Paul Kern, who was shot in the head in WWI and never slept again, spent about 12 of his 24-hr days clubbing and the worst “side effect” was how much it cost to stay awake all the time.
YrvA TIL that living in an area where you can see the ocean has been found to reduce psychological stress, even after controlling for factors such as income and neighborhood status.
78GV7 TIL that in 2000 Andre Geim won the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for levitating a frog using magnets. In 2010 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on graphene.
1aLXD TIL the proverb, "It ain't over till the fat lady sings," derives from the traditionally buxom Valkyrie Brünnhilde from Wagner's Götterdämmerung opera. Her farewell song before the end of the world lasts almost twenty minutes and leads to the finale of the whole Ring Cycle of operas by Wagner.
ADZEa TIL American WWII pilot Charlie Brown was struggling to keep his damaged bomber airborne in the skies over Germany in 1943 when Luftwaffe ace Hanz Stigler flew alongside. Instead of firing due to how much damage the bomber had taken as he thought it would be dishonorable, Stigler gave a salute.