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TIL that Florida Governor Rick Scott once gave out a sex line phone number instead of a meningitis information line number during a cabinet meeting. This was amidst a nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak.

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4an6 TIL that the term “Big Bang theory” was first coined by astronomer Fred Hoyle on a BBC radio programme in March 1949. Hoyle was a prominent critic of the theory.
9wkDr TIL: The top (summit) of Mt Everest is grey limestone, complete with embedded marine invertebrate fossils (e.g. trilobites). This means that the rock that makes up the top Mt Everest was once underwater.
VMJap TIL In 1943, the British took a civilian's corpse, filled his lungs with water, dressed him in a military uniform, gave him fake intelligence letters, and dropped him off the coast of Spain -- all in an elaborate ruse to draw the Germans away from Sicily. It worked.
ag6J TIL The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle has an air-to-air kill ratio of 98 to 1, the only air-to-air loss in 40 years of operation was a Saudi Arabian Air Force F-15 believed to have been shot down by an Iraqi Mig-25 during Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1991.
LQpVQ TIL that the architect Erno Goldfinger threatened to sue Ian Fleming over his name being used for the novel. Fleming responded that he might then, accidentally let the name slip to Goldprick here and there in the book.