› added 2 years ago

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TIL: That the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission had planned to carve out an artificial harbor in Northern Alaska using buried nuclear explosions. The plan (Project Chariot) had a lot of public support and would have been carried out if the Inupiat village of Point Hope hadn't strongly opposed it.

Wk46A TIL that a pie "à la mode" is a pie served with ice cream.
v1r0j TIL That screws are "righty tightly, lefty loosey" because right handed people are more common and arm supination(forearm rotation outward) is stronger than pronation(inward) for right handed individuals. This way tightening bolts uses the most torque. This is why you're left hand can loosen easier.
5EM9 TIL 2,4-dinitrophenol, a widely used chemical in industry, is also a powerful weight loss agent with severe side effects. In some people, it can burn food energy so fast that their body isn’t able to expel the heat quickly enough, thus causing them to die by literally burning from the inside out.
KON5R TIL to just be allowed to try out for the US Olympic team for running the marathon, you have to run a marathon in under 2 hours and 19 minutes. That is the same thing as running 26 miles where each mile is done in around 5 minutes and 18 seconds.
p8eJb TIL the training for the original The Matrix movie was so intense Hugo Weaving (Smith) needed hip surgery and Keanu Reeves (Neo) suffered a two-level fusion of his cervical spine which had begun to cause paralysis in his legs, requiring him to undergo neck surgery.