› added 10 years ago

126

TIL as well as receiving sword taps to the shoulders, a gentleman might also get a ritual slap across the face as a final affront he’d have to accept prior to becoming a fully-fledged knight

epE7L TIL the town of Rjukan in Norway receives no natural sunshine from September to March owing to the sheer mountains that surround it. They have built three enormous mirrors to reflect light into the town square. The mirrors follow the sun's path and move every 10 seconds to form a 600m square pool of
459X TIL that despite being used to make balloons float and our voices squak, helium is a rare element (on Earth) which is only getting rarer due to the fact it floats out of our atmosphere. This is problematic, as it has useful scientific applications, and is currently essential in MRI technology.
NX4n1 TIL referees would respond to Dikembe Mutombo's gesture of waving his index finger after a block with a technical foul. To avoid the foul, Mutombo started waving his finger at the crowd or TV cameras after a block as that is not considered taunting per NBA rules.
0j9L TIL all humanity has a common (8000x) grandmother. An African woman who lived 200,000 years ago is the common maternal ancestor of all humans alive today.
nMAG TIL Fidel Castro and his entourage stayed at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem, a centre of the Black community, during his 1960 New York City visit. There he felt African Americans would be more sympathetic to his cause. His stay in Harlem prompted many other leaders to visit the neighborhood