› added 4 years ago

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TIL the old man who died in the Mt St Helens eruption was once sunk by a U-boat, smuggled booze, threw his ex-wife into a lake during arguments, got park rangers drunk, impersonated game wardens, assaulted taxmen, hated hippies, chased off a Supreme Court Justice and died with his cats on a volcano

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nONr TIL: The Recording Industry Association of America claimed damages due to online piracy against LimeWire totaling $75 trillion – more than the global GDP
kkQ7 TIL Apollo 15’s crew left a plaque on the Moon commemorating both American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts who had died for space exploration
BgZEd TIL of Maple Syrup Urine Disease; a disorder inherited via genetic mutations causing an infant's urine to smell sweet, like maple syrup.
ANG67 TIL that a “Jiffy” is a real unit of time. Defined by Gilbert Lewis in 1926 as the time it takes light to travel 1cm (~33.3564 picoseconds), it has since been redefined in astrophysics & quantum physics by Edward Harrison as the time it takes for light to travel 1 fermi (or, 10^-15m: ~3×10^-24sec):
abKJ TIL there is an RC car that returns Javelins to the Olympic athletes. Here’s the video from London 2012.