› added 11 years ago

294

TIL that the most common way we board airplanes, the block method, is actually the least efficient way.

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E15d0 TIL that UFC fighters actually weigh much more in their daily lives than in the weight classes they compete in. They use extreme weight manipulation to lose 15-20 lbs. in 5 days before the weigh in, and then gain all that weight back in the 24 hrs before the fight. Including GSP and Silva.
awVlN TIL the Rolls-Royce Merlin exhaust gases exited at 1300 mph (2100 kph) and when angled backwards produced 70 pounds-force (32 kg-f) of thrust. This increased the Spitfire's top speed by about 10 mph (16 kph).
rOAo TIL NASA conducted a bed-rest study that paid participants $17,000 to stay in bed for 90 days.
epvlb TIL that King Augustus II of Poland was a voracious womanizer. He had only one legitimate son—the future King Augustus III—but some contemporary sources claim that he had as many as 365 or 382 children.
J1Yd4 TIL the slam dunk was banned in college basketball for about a decade, from 1967 to 1976, widely believed to lessen the impact of one player Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).