› added 5 years ago

810

TIL A dark patch was left intentionally on the ceiling of Grand Central Station's main concourse to show how dirty it was before and after it's first cleaning. The patch was swabbed and tested revealing the dirty ceiling was about 100 years of built up nicotine/cigarette smoke

Read more nytimes.com

via reddit.com

J1ne8 TIL that there is a World Championship for Microsoft Excel, (an e-sport!) which consists of solving mathematical problems and complex financial models on Excel quicker than your opponents. The 2023 winner, 'Andrew the Annihilator', got a wrestling-style belt, a trophy, and $3,000.
myZE TIL that the first person to perform a cardiac catheterization was not allowed to perform the procedure on a patient, so he decided to perform it on himself and then walk all the way to the X-ray room with the catheter still in his arm to prove that the tube had reached his heart.
wLGbo TIL In 1963, Heineken created a beer bottle that could also function as a brick to build houses in impoverished countries after he took a trip to the island of Curacao in the Caribbean Sea and discovered that he could barely walk 15 feet on the beach without stepping on a littered Heineken bottle.
pZge TIL Cockroaches can make group decisions. When 50 cockroaches are presented with 3 shelters that can only house 40, they’ll split evenly into two groups and leave one shelter empty.
E19vx TIL of test pilot Bill Weaver who survived the disintegration of his SR-71 Blackbird while going Mach 3.2 at 78,000 ft.