› added 5 years ago

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TIL that in sensitive experiments, scientists have to use metal made before 1945 because the Cold War nuclear tests permanently made the atmosphere and as a result all manufactured metal too radioactive. Much of the metal is taken from sunken ships.

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Lk45Z TIL about Canvey Wick, an old industrial waste zone that is the most biodiverse place in Britain. Its history as a dumping ground for sediment waste from industrial processes means that it has a wide variety of soil conditions, with the result that it has the equivalent biodiversity of a rainforest.
GY5DG TIL about the Oslo Breakfast, a meal that began to be served to Norwegian schoolchildren starting 1932. A typical version included an orange, milk, whole-wheat bread, rye biscuit, cheese, carrot and a spoon of cod-liver oil. It reportedly increased the average height of 14 year olds by 4 inches.
0b95 TIL that James Franco launched a college course entitled “Master Class: Editing James Franco…with James Franco,” in which student editors are to compile a 30 minute documentary on Franco, using behind the scenes footage of Franco supplied by Franco, to “create a cinematic image of James Franco.”
6EQDQ TIL of the "Chicken poop prison" in Thailand. The ceiling of the cells was a grate, and chickens were cared for above the cell. Their dung was then allowed to drop freely onto the criminal within.
xVoBo TIL that a church in Italy, destroyed by an earthquake in 1976, was rebuilt using most of its original cataloged stones that were placed in the exact same positions they were in before it fell.