› added 11 years ago

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TIL that during Thirty Years War the Swedish refined waterboarding by using urine and shit

OAo6 TIL John Adams said “There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the Republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader and converting measures in opposition to each other.” Despite this, nothing was written in the Constitution about political parties
wLX9P A new study published February 15 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society finds that the Andromeda galaxy is actually around the same size as our own galaxy. Scientists previously thought Andromeda was about two to three times the size of the Milky Way, and that it would one day swallow us up in a galactic smashup billions of years away. But researchers using a technique to measure “the speed required to escape a galaxy” have figured out why Andromeda is smaller than research has suggested, according to the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). This could seriously change the outcome of that eventual merger.
jN01j TIL that after Lady Diana's death two Slovakian tourists were each given a 28-day prison sentence for having taken eleven teddy bears and a number of flowers from the pile outside the palace. This was reduced to a fine of £200 each.
Gdog TIL: a Thermos flask creates a highly efficient thermal insulation by creating a partial vacuum between 2 barriers. Since there’s virtually no air/gas/matter, there’s nothing to carry energy away (bar the canister itself). This is how rocket fuel is stored - in a giant Thermos.
kJGEg TIL that, despite belief it came out in 1991 alongside Sonic the Hedgehog 1, the Genesis, known as the Mega Drive outside of the USA, was actually released in 1989 in the USA.