› added 4 years ago

126

TIL Kanō Jigorō, creator of judo, also served as the Japanese representative to many Olympics and had a pivotal role in securing Japan's bid for the 1940 Olympics. He was indifferent towards the inclusion of judo, however, as it was not "mere sport" but rather "a principle of life, art and science."

8anoG TIL that Lake Superior is so cold that bacteria needed to cause a submerged dead body to float and surface is unable to grow. Due to this, many bodies from shipwrecks, such as the Edmund Fitzgerald, have never been recovered.
4E0b TIL that in parts of Africa, people often report seeing (and even being attacked by) a pterodactyl-like creature known as the kongamato
mxeQP TIL about The Radium Craze. At the beginning of 20th century, radium was a miracle element, it was used in products from toothpaste to soap, hair and face creams, in food such as butter and milk. Doctors recommended it for the treatment of everything from arthritis to impotence to senility.
1aYKV TIL in 1972, The Los Alamos National Laboratories patented a nuclear tunnel boring machine, claiming it could reach depths of 18+ miles. It uses molten lithium to melt through rock, leaving behind a tunnel with a glass-like finish.
N7l5P TIL that the British colony of New South Wales originally included what is now New Zealand, the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia, the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, and Norfolk Island