› added 1 year ago

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TIL that the first female on record to circumnavigate the globe did so twice, surviving two or three shipwrecks. She was a milk-goat with no name on record, just called "The Well-Travelled Goat" in her 1772 obituary.

dD6OB TIL that despite the notoriety of the Three Mile Island accident, wherein the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station suffered a partial meltdown, it resulted in no deaths and epidemiology studies on the region concluded that “the accident had no observable long-term health effects.”
0Vbv TIL of the Pronghorn, the fastest creature in the western hemisphere. It can run 57mph for 9 miles. Existing pronghorn’s running speed and endurance far outpace any living predator, likely because its original predator is now extinct. It has 300° vision and can detect movement 4 miles away.
xVWyD TIL Lynn Margulis, proponent for the significance of symbiosis in evolution (bacteria merging into other bacteria to form more complex cells), had such trouble getting her ideas recognized that a grant proposal was returned with "Your research is crap. Don't ever bother to apply again."
9Kvr TIL that 30 british officers tried to escape POW camp “Castle Colditz” (Oflag IV-C) by digging a tunnel. Because they read the compass wrong, they landed in the wine cellar of a german colonel. There they drank 137 bottles of wine, filled them with their urine and placed them back.
R7xRa TIL Hot Pockets blamed a lack of sales in 2013 to a lack of extended food stamp benefits