› added 6 years ago

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TIL The world's tallest man as of 2006 was asked to help remove plastic from a dolphin's stomach, and he succeeded by sticking his arm down the dolphins' esophagus and pulling out the plastic by hand

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via reddit.com

BdZD TIL A chemist at a bomb factory accidentally pricked himself with a needle containing plutonium. He survived, and had radioactive pee for the next few years.
6EZ9l TIL Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt is the only scientist to have explored the Moon’s surface. Because he was not a pilot, as all previous astronauts were, Dr. Schmitt attended a 53-week course in flight training, logging more than 2,100 hours flying time
4keVR TIL that at restaurants that don't print dollar signs next to prices on their menus, customers will spend more
rN18w TIL In 1943, a Luftwaffe pilot came across a crippled B-17 trying to make it home after a bomb run. Instead of shooting it down, the German pilot escorted it home. The pilots met up 50 years later and became friends, and both died within a few months of each other
VM548 TIL that Stephanie Kwolek the inventor of Kevlar was working on finding a new, lightweight substitute for steel belting in automobile tires, on fears of a looming oil shortage and in anticipation of a market for lighter tires. What resulted was a new fiber five times stronger than steel by weight.