› added 8 months ago

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Today I learned a radioactive cocaine analogue is used to test for Parkinson’s disease

Owve TIL all of the actors in “Pirates of the Caribbean” learned how to work with cannons and swords in Pirates School, which included getting trained by the late famed swordsman Bob Anderson, who also was the lightsaber master who fought battles as Darth Vader in Star Wars films
R76jl TIL that although Usain Bolt has won 8 gold medals in the Olympics, he only ran for 114 seconds in the finals. When you include the preliminary rounds, Bolt has spent only 325 seconds on the Olympics track. This means that he has got a gold medal for every 36 seconds, including qualifying rounds.
p8RRG TIL in 1951, Natalie Carbone Mangini became the first female scientist at Westinghouse. They meant to hire a man but they misread her resume and gave her an interview when she showed up. As a radiochemist, she worked on the world's first full-scale atomic reactor and the first nuclear submarine.
vPLRR TIL that actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Rear Window) refused to ever appear on The Tonight Show because Johnny Carson often told fat jokes about him, and Burr would feel compelled to confront Carson about "the bad jokes he does about everybody who can't fight back because they aren't there."
VMJxD TIL Britain ended Capital Punishment after the unjust execution of Timothy Evans, for the murders of his wife and daughter. He'd accused his neighbour John Christie of the crime. Years later, Christie was discovered to be a serial killer who had killed 6 other woman and Evans's wife and daughter.