› added 12 years ago

109

TIL: The decision to ground all planes in the U.S. on September 11th was made by one man, Ben Sliney, one of the FAA’s National Operations Managers. It was his first day in that position.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wY81 TIL It costs $12,500 to deport a single illegal immigrant in the United States.
QJnpL TIL that mosquitos can pause & resume their development lifecycle stages egg -> larva -> pupa -> adult. While each of these stages typically last 5 - 14 days, if conditions are unfavourable (heat, cold etc), they can delay the transition by even a year by going into diapause (dormant stage)
XERwX TIL of Le Pétomane, a french flatulist (professional farter) who performed at the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s. He was said to have been so skilled as to be able to mimic the sounds of cannon fire and thunderstorms, as well as the sounds of farm animals.
d8Q1K TIL Edward James Olmos was offered the role of captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation before Patrick Stewart
gN69 TIL $100,000,000 lawsuit claiming the film Sister Act was plagiarized from a book A Nun in the Closet. Disney offered $1,000,000 to settle of out court the but the plaintiffs declined. Eventually the judge found in favor of Disney and the other defendants, the plaintiffs got nothing.