› added 10 years ago

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TIL the word Dinner comes from the old French word Disner, which meant “Breakfast”.

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via reddit.com

Wkpw9 TIL Brazilian scrap thieves unknowingly stole highly radioactive caesium-137 from a shuttered hospital. The glowing powder was handled, shown to neighbors as a curiosity and even dabbed on faces like makeup. This event resulted in 4 deaths, including a toddler who ingested the powder. [NSFW]
oRWo8 TIL that there is a species of bird called the Kakapo, also known as the "owl parrot," native to New Zealand. It is the world's only flightless parrot and is critically endangered, with only around 200 individuals left.
mxVax TIL Files kept secret for 60 years indicate British intelligence may have knowingly sent more than 50 of its own agents to almost certain death in occupied Holland during the Second World War as part of a complicated "double double agent" game played against the Germans.
Qg0d TIL Sesame Street’s Count Von Count’s counting obsession come from a traditional vampire myths that depicts vampires as having a fixation with counting small objects. In the myth, the fixation often provides a means of distracting them by tossing a handful of seeds or salt on the ground.
Z8JKa TIL that police officers tap the rear of your vehicle with their hand when performing a traffic stop so that if anything were to happen to the officer during the encounter, there would be physical evidence of them coming into contact with your vehicle via fingerprints.