› added 2 years ago

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TIL during the Chernobyl meltdown, it was feared that molten fuel (corium) would reach flooded areas and explode. Three engineers tried to prevent this, but corium dopped into the water before they arrived. The fuel then cooled into a ceramic pumice and floated around the room, instead of exploding.

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QwNX TIL An Irish priest was offered free travel on the Titanic to New York but his superior told him to “GET OFF THAT SHIP”. The rest of his life he would tell people “it was the only time holy obedience ever saved a man’s life”.
OwV4 TIL in 2016, with the support of her mother, a U.K. teenage girl with terminal cancer successfully petitioned London’s High Court for the right to be cryogenically frozen. The girl died with the knowledge that she would be frozen, and her body was sent to the U.S. for long-term cryogenic storage.
wLd9W TIL a ruby is actually just a red sapphire
P151L TIL Puducherry District encompasses all Former French territories - Yanam, Mahe, Karaikal and Pondicherry - that are spread all over South India as exclaves
gMrKL TIL that a group of burglars actually admitted to using social media updates where people claimed to be "away from home" in order to decide who to steal from.