› added 4 years ago

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TIL Marie Curie's annex lab in Arcueil is sometimes called Chernobyl on the Seine. The lab closed in 1978 but radium has a half-life of 1,600 years, and there are traces of a uranium isotope at the Curie annex with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. The cleanup has so far cost about €10 million.

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l79jG TIL: In 1962, the U.S. detonated a nuclear bomb in space during the "Starfish Prime" test, 250 miles above Earth. This high-altitude explosion damaged satellites and electrical systems, revealing the far-reaching effects of nuclear tests beyond their immediate area.
vrwL TIL that if you pirate “Game Dev Tycoon,” the virtual games that the player develops will be virtually pirated, and the player will go bankrupt, making it impossible to win.
E1aEo TIL that the cottage where Ulysses Grant finished his memoirs is now an historic monument and is kept how it was when he died. On his desk is a large bottle of liquid cocaine. Park rangers check it annually to make sure it is all there.
oB7PW TIL Van goh didn’t think starry night was very good. When he decided to hold back three paintings from shipping to his brother in order to save money on postage, The Starry Night was one of the paintings he didn't send
nWVDd TIL Che Guevara’s executioner, Mario Terán, was a 27-year-old Bolivian sergeant who while half-drunk requested to shoot him because three of his friends, all named "Mario", had been killed days earlier by Guevara's band of guerrillas.