› added 12 years ago

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TIL that 29% of San Francisco’s air pollution comes from China.

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j6Qvp TIL in 2009, Ken Basin became the first contestant on the U.S. version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to miss the million-dollar question. He debated what he would regret more: walking away with $500K and being right or answering it and being wrong. He risked it, lost $475K, and left with $25K.
oojE TIL a 25 year old contestant on the French version of Survivor died during the first competition on the first day. A week later, the staff doctor of the show killed himself. His suicide note claimed the media was making unjust accusations and assumptions about him.
ZpLjo TIL about the landlocked Kingdom of Sikkim, a hereditary monarchy nestled between Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal and India. It's last Queen was San Francisco socialite, Hope Cooke. Lasting from 1642 it ceased to exist in 1975.
pYdme TIL that we can never travel at the speed of light according to our current understanding of the physics of the universe because to travel at speed of light, we would need infinite amount of energy which is not possible. Quite a revelation after watching 100s of sci-fi movies.
b9e80 TIL that during the naval Battle of Tsushima in 1905, the Japanse fleet kept firing on the surrendering Russian ships as the Japanse code books didn't contain the signal for "surrender"