› added 9 months ago

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TIL in the 1980s, a woman bought a ring at a car boot sale for £10 & proceeded to wear it regularly under the assumption it was a piece of costume jewelry. However when she had it appraised decades later, it was identified as a real 26-carat diamond ring from the 1800s, which she then sold for £656K

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p8oAp TIL that there's a cave in Romania that had been sealed off from the outside world for 5.5 million years and scientists have discovered dozens of unique lifeforms thriving in the poisonous gases and water.
ANOnx TIL there is a cliff on Miranda (moon of Uranus) named Verona Rupes that is estimated to be 20km high. It is the tallest known cliff in the solar system and if you jumped off of it you would fall for about 12 minutes before hitting the ground due to the lower gravity.
1aGK8 TIL about the Flehmen response, or “stinky face.” When cats smell something they like, they open their mouths and curl up their lips because an organ on the roof of their mouths contains extra scent receptors that help them get a better whiff.
j6YZR TIL Mel Gibson was supposed to direct Good Will Hunting after making Braveheart. He developed the movie for months but wanted more time. Damon and Affleck got impatient and said they were aging out of the characters. So they convinced Mel to leave the project and let Gus Van Sant direct it.
8a8YZ TIL that the largest lake in the world is also the oldest: Lake Baikal, Siberia. It contains 20% of the Earth's fresh surface water, and is 25 million years old.