› added 5 years ago

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TIL of Iris Robinson, an anti-gay Irish politician whose career ended after the exposure of an extramarital affair with the (40 years younger) adult child of a family friend. In response, a Facebook group was set up attempting to get the song "Mrs. Robinson" to No. 1 in the Official UK Singles Chart

6Ew47 TIL about the Ice block expedition of 1959. Glassvatt successfully transported 3 tons of ice from Mo i Rana to Libreville without any refrigeration , losing only 11% of ice weight in the journey which took 27 days to complete over 10,000 km(~6200miles).
R7dBl TIL Mitigation explains one of the great anomalies of plane crashes. Crashes are far more likely to happen when the captain — that is, the more experienced pilot — is in the flying seat because of the 'Mitigated Speech'.
XZ6E TIL in 1995, Robert Metcalfe predicted that the Internet would collapse in 1996 and that he would “eat his words” if it did not. In 1997, he blended a printed copy of his speech with liquid and drank the mixture.
xV8bk TIL The International Chopin Piano Competition has been held every five years since 1955. It is one of the few competitions devoted entirely to the works of a single composer
kOxJ1 TIL that contrary to popular belief, Jerry Maren was not the last surviving Wizard of Oz cast member; he was the last one with a speaking role. An actor for a Winkie guard survived til late 2018, and Dorothy's own dance stunt double is still alive as of this posting.