› added 8 months ago

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TIL: That Christine McVie wrote the song "Songbird" in just half an hour at around midnight, but didn't have anyone around to record it. To ensure she did not forget the chord structure and melody, McVie remained awake the entire night and played the song for producer Ken Caillat the next morning.

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D99P TIL the most radioactive place on earth isn’t Chernobyl or Fukushima, but a lake in the southern Urals that was once home the the Soviet’s nuclear waste storage area. You could receive a lethal dose of radiation in 30 minutes just standing on the shore of the lake.
BgMEe TIL how a centuries old inscription on a boulder was deciphered by a contest.
Wkn89 TIL in 1816 a volcanic event led to what is known as the Year Without a Summer, originating an agricultural disaster. The lack of horse food inspired Karl Drais to research new ways of horseless transportation, leading to the invention of the velocipede, a step torwards mechanized personal transport
jNJxa TIL the term “mark” originated from the carnival. When dishonest game operators found someone they could entice to keep playing their rigged game, they would "mark" the player by patting their back with a hand that had chalk on it. Other carnies would then keep an eye out for rubes with chalk marks.
WkPZY TIL in Russia, the name "Plyushkin" is applied to people who collect and amass various useless things. The word comes from fictional character Stepan Plyushkin who orders one of his serfs to find a cake that a visitor brought several years ago, scrape off the mold, and bring it to them.