› added 7 years ago

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TIL that in 1856, an Indian surveyor calculated the peak of Mount Everest to be exactly 29,000 ft. Fearing that nobody would believe that this was the exact height and nothing more than an estimate, he publicly declared the height to be 29,002 ft.

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neQ8b TIL Lions who have been kicked out of their pride (pack) have gay sex to bond before trying to take over another pride.
dLNQ TIL that the American government had a “Conscience Fund” where people could send money if they felt guilty. The largest sum ever received was from 1909 when someone mailed in $18,669 (US$ 490,000 in 2015)
b6k47 TIL Ernesto Miranda, namesake of the Miranda warning, was murdered and the person suspected of killing him invoked his Miranda rights and was never charged
0nvN TIL bear bile farms actually have some scientific basis because bears are the only mammals that naturally produce large amounts of UDCA in their bile. UDCA is FDA approved for treatment of gallstones. On the other hand, it can be synthesized without any harm to bears.
8eNOK TIL the Soviet Union had a famous clown imitator of Charlie Chaplin named Karandash.