› added 5 years ago

72

TIL of a gene named 'mothers against decapentaplegic', parodying 'Mothers Against X'-type organizations

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woPY6 TIL Frank Sinatra was contractually obliged to be offered first refusal of John McClane in Die Hard
kOxE4 TIL in 1953 four editors from the Harvard Crimson newspaper stole a birdsh*t covered ibis statue from their rival- the Harvard Lampoon. The editors talked their way into a meeting with the Soviet Ambassador, and gifted the ibis to the USSR as ‘symbol of the universality of the search for truth'
Wkm6B TIL People born deaf with schizophrenia see disembodied hands signing to them, as opposed to "hearing" voices
e0YOg TIL airplanes that fly the advertising banners do not take off with the signs. They lower a grappling hook and grab them from the ground.
EgoY0 TIL that despite the popular belief that the USSR possesed hundreds of ICBMs and was winning the arms race, in reality they possesed only four by 1961.