› added 13 years ago

149

TIL Warm water freezes faster than cold, and that scientists still don’t know why.

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via reddit.com

KOkJ4 TIL about Operation Sea-Spray, where in September 1950 a U.S. Navy ship spent a week spraying bacteria into the air about two miles off the northern California coast. The secret project's goal was to determine the susceptibility of a big city like San Francisco to a bioweapon attack.
p804N TIL that The March 11, magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan may have shortened the length of each Earth day and shifted its axis.
P176g TIL there are many widely varying names of Germany, with roots similar to: 'Germany' in 53 languages; 'Allemagne' in 30 languages; 'Deutschland' in 23 languages; 'Niemcy' in 17 languages; and 'Saksa' in 6 languages
LkQ9P TIL that in 2006 Michael Vick started a charity for at-risk youth. The charity spent $20,000 of its budget on programs for kids, paid $97,000 to a friend of Vick's who acted as the foundation's "fundraiser" and gave the remaining $50,000 in its bank account to Vick's financial adviser.
k0be TIL murderers in medieval Ireland were given to the deceased’s family as slaves if they failed to pay a hefty fine to buy their freedom. The family could then legally kill the murderer themselves.