› added 12 years ago

97

TIL that on the day Deepwater Horizon exploded, BP officials had gathered on the platform to celebrate 7 years without an injury or accident

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wL17o TIL Theoretical physicist Abraham (Avi) Loeb made the case that microbes could have been ejected into space from earth by asteroid impacts billions of years ago, in a reverse kind of panspermia, theoretically leading to life being spread across the solar system or further.
e0GVD TIL That in Georgian Britain, hiring of "Ornamental Hermits" for estates was a short-lived trend.
loZE5 TIL the Ivanpah solar plant in the deserts of California released 68,676 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2015
AyZg TIL The Beatles approached Stanley Kubrick to direct a LOTR movie starring themselves. Tolkien killed the project as a result of his hate for The Beatles. A hate developed after moving 3 doors down from The Beatles in 1964, who irked him with the “indescribable” noise from their practice sessions.
0wvmR TIL that a slave rebellion broke out on slaveship La Amistad in 1839, resulting in two deaths. The slaves were captured and stood trial. It was ruled that they acted as free men, and were entitled to take any measures necessary to ensure freedom, including force. They were all returned to Africa.