› added 7 years ago

106

TIL: That you need 60 votes in the Senate to confirm a Supreme Court Justice. But only 50 votes to change the rule to make only 51 votes necessary to confirm a Supreme Court Justice.

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LQ5j9 TIL about LtCol Rankin, who parachuted through a thunderstorm in 1959 when his plane engine died at 47k feet. Due to repeatedly being sucked back into and ejected from the top of the thunderstorm, it took him 40 minutes to reach the ground.
p8LQ TIL that the death star trench sequence in Star Wars was inspired by the RAF dam busting missions during WW2
Eg8xX TIL Canadian undercover officers posed as teen girls to catch a disgraced officer who flashed them while driving around private girls schools in Vancouver
p8674 TIL about the My Way killings, a social phenomenon in the Philippines referring to a number of fatal disputes which arose due to the singing of the song My Way by Frank Sinatra in karaoke bars.
0dpZp TIL that tetrodotoxin (TTX), which makes pufferfish poisonous, may not be made by the pufferfish themselves. TTX is produced by marine bacteria in the natural pufferfish food chain, and pufferfish fed TTX-free diets become non-toxic. When TTX is re-introduced to the fish, they become toxic again.