› added 11 years ago

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TIL that a middle aged operator at Chernobyl intentionally went into 5-15k R/hr radiation fields to take emergency actions to prevent younger men having to - he received 5x the amount of radiation needed to kill a human and saved many lives.

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via reddit.com

N7OWQ Today I learned the Cornus Florida is the state tree for Virginia and Missouri, but not Florida.
grxeb TIL: About the West European tradition of ‘Telling the bees’
jNp5a TIL Zürich has around 1200 water fountains. That’s an average of one every 0.03 miles of the city’s 34 square miles
nWk6Y TIL that the inventor of Fettuccine Alfredo, Alfredo Di Lelio, invented the famous pasta in 1908 primarily as a way to get his wife to eat, as she had recently given birth to their first child and thus did not have much of an appetite.
oRx4A TIL of NYC's Clean Car Program: after years of unsuccessfully preventing tagging of parked subway cars, NYC changed its approach in 1984. Any cars with graffiti were cleaned within two hours or removed from service. The last graffiti covered car was removed from service on May 12, 1989.