› added 12 years ago

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TIL there was an astronomically unlucky astronomer: His first expedition to India to study the Transit of Venus was thwarted by clouds and war; his second 8 years later by the only cloudy day in months. Upon returning he found that he was legally dead, his wife remarried, and his estate was pilfered

X7LE TIL spiders don’t actually bite you while you’re sleeping, and probably never actually even go on your bed. Bumps attributed to nighttime spider bites are most often due to non-bite disease conditions!
D1X4g TIL in 1968, Joachim Foikis received a $3500 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to dress up in a jester’s outfit and "mock the four pillars of society: money, status, respectability, and conformity". He served as Vancouver's official Town Fool for two years.
nW4mG TIL that Wayne Gretzky and John Candy bought the Toronto Argonauts in 1991. They paid Raghib Ismail, the presumptive #1 overall NFL drat pick, a record amount to instead play in the CFL.
Yp9Lr TIL that dogs are the only non-primate species with a left-gaze bias. Humans tend to look at the right side of a human face for better facial recognition and dogs respond to faces in a similar way: Dogs also fixate on the right side of a human face, but not that of other animals.
6ylY TIL a DC Judge sued a family-owned dry cleaner for $67 Million for allegedly losing a pair of his pants. The family ultimately had to close 2 of their 3 stores to fund their defense.