› added 1 year ago

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TIL about the East German Balloon Escape, where 8 people successfully escaped East Germany in a homemade hot air balloon

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via reddit.com

nW4O7 TIL Chris Rock was diagnosed late in life with a nonverbal learning disorder similar to Asperger's syndrome which makes it difficult to understand non-verbal cues and signals.
OGeQg TIL Narwhals add a layer to their tusks every year they are alive and, much like tree rings, they show the living conditions that the narwhal experiences during that year of their life
XE0L6 TIL in 1996 Cory Foulk competed the Ironman Hawaii barefoot on a 61 pound beach cruiser promotion the World Triathlon Corporation to add rules enforcing footwear and race style bicycles.
0wjn5 TIL that Kalpana Chawla, one of the astronauts killed in the Columbia tragedy, knew Steve Morse of Deep Purple and had even taken the band’s “Machine Head” album to space with her on the mission. Morse wrote a song called “Contact Lost” as a tribute to her.
k45m TIL that a woman almost lost custody of her children because a DNA test showed that her children weren’t hers. Turns out there are humans who exist with two sets of DNA if two fertilized eggs fuse together during conception. The matching DNA was eventually found in her cervical tissue.