› added 12 years ago

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TIL Some Paralympic athletes gain an unfair advantage by purposely injuring themselves on areas of their body with no feeling. It’s called “boosting” and the goal is to trick the body into triggering a kind of fight-or-flight response, and in doing so, increase performance.

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MG1a TIL the ‘Miss Cleo free tarot reading’ psychic hotline was generating $24 million a month for two years straight. The Miss Cleo herself only earned $1,750 for the three days it took to film the first infomercial
1arvP TIL on Titan, the atmosphere can hold the equivalent of about 10 meters of liquid before rain forms vs. only a few centimeters on Earth. So Titan's weather is expected to feature torrential downpours causing flash floods, interspersed by decades or centuries of drought.
GGXE TIL a man died while cleaning machinery with gasoline, which dripped onto a rat that was running across the floor. The rat’s gasoline-coated fur ignited when it ran beneath a heater with a pilot light, causing an explosion that killed the worker - a story of negligence now taught in law schools.
EJJX TIL the Vikings had swords marked with “Ulfbehrt” using high carbon “crucible steel” not made again until the Industrial Revolution, 800 years later. Maker history is yet unknown.
loQBN TIL that a comedian/magician Tommy Cooper died live on television in front of millions of viewers. The audience was laughing while he was having the heart attack - thinking it was part of his performance.