› added 4 years ago

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TIL that George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras were roommates in Amherst College in the United States in the 1970s. Both went on to become Prime Ministers of Greece.

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woPmP TIL of Zambia's space program involving being rolled down a hill & spun around trees in an oil drum as weightlessness training, then swinging on a rope then cut from it, emulating freefall. Taught to walk on their hands as this was "how you walk in space". A 16 yr old and a cat were Mars bound first
R5gRa TIL: The first written use of the name "Jessica" appears in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. The bard likely changed (anglicised) the spelling from the biblical name "Iscah"
gr9Z7 TIL that actor Hume Cronyn's father has an asteroid named after him (12050-Humecronyn)
Brjgd TIL the concept of the Hogwart’s houses in the Harry Potter series, was difficult to communicate for translators of foreign editions since in some cultures there was no way of adequately describing the significance of belonging to house or being loyal to one.
m1x9o TIL that the scoring system to determine whether limbs should be surgically reattached or fully amputated after an extremity injury is called MESS (Mangled Extremity Severity Score). Basically, the MESSier the injury, the more likely the scoring system is to recommend an amputation.