› added 10 years ago

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TIL Africa’s tallest apartment complex has a dark central void space, its first 3 stories filled up with accumulated garbage - it has also “developed a reputation for defenestrations – accidents, suicides and otherwise.”

E1jPp TIL men and women used to compete against each other in skeet shooting at the Olympics, until a woman won in 1992. Since then, the event has been split by gender.
5Yprp TIL of the Schiphol fly, which is a fly engraved on urinals at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The psychology is that men will want to "wash" the fly off the urinal so they focus more when urinating, apparently lowering cleaning bills in public bathrooms.
wow0Y TIL In the early 1900s Mauricia de Tiers performed a stunt known as the “Dip of Death” in which her car was launched upside down and landed onto a ramp that would flip her upright. Mauricia de Tiers ultimately died performing the stunt when her automobile left the track and crashed into the arena.
loeoa TIL that in 1996 the boxing career of former heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Morrison ended when he tested positive for HIV. However, in 2007 two nationally renowned HIV experts retained by the NY Times concluded that the 1996 result had been a false positive.
wrX8 TIL when the Beatles wrote the song “With a Little Help from My Friends”, the first line ended with ‘What would you think if I sang out of tune? Would You Throw Ripe Tomatoes at Me?’, but Ringo changed it so that fans would not throw tomatoes at him should he perform it live.