› added 10 years ago

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TIL that because the concrete of the Hoover Dam was poured into individual, rectangular shaped sections–rather than with a single, continuous pour–the physical dam itself will survive up to 10,000 years and be one of the last remaining visible and recognizable monuments of humans on the planet.

GYB6J TIL the idea of black holes was first proposed in 1783 by John Michell, calling them "dark stars" and proposing a method to detect them by looking for star systems that showed the gravitational effects of two stars, but only one star was visible, which is indeed how scientists look for them today
R50Lj TIL that the extreme lifelong behavioral problems of Nancy Spungen (gf of Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols) are thought to be caused by brain damage via birth asphyxia from umbilical cord wrapped around her neck
nWPYG TIL of the Ig Nobel prize, a parody of the Nobel prize dedicated to ten achievements that “first make you laugh, then make you think”, such as the 1993 award for mathematics awarded to a man who calculated the exact odds of Mikhail Gorbachev being the Antichrist (710,609,175,188,282,000 to 1)
QN7wa TIL Alison Moyet’s laugh on the '82 synth pop masterpiece 'Situation' has been sampled over 90 times, including on the dance classics 'Macarena' and C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat.” The giggle was originally accidentally caught on tape and the band decided to leave it in the song.
4XAgg TIL about the 761st Tank Battalion, an all African American unit was considered "one of most effective tank battalions in World War II", and that baseball legend Jackie Robinson had been a member prior to the unit shipping overseas.