› added 4 years ago

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TIL about the Australian phatic finger. This is a norm whereby drivers on outback highways (where you can go long periods without seeing another vehicle) will raise their index finger as a friendly gesture of mutual aknowledgement.

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5VgL9 TIL A Diplodocus skeleton cast, nicknamed 'Dippy', donated to the Natural History Museum in 1905, is cleaned once every two years, and takes a team of staff two days to clean its 292 bones.
D1x1J TIL that in 1973 the Who’s drummer Keith Moon passed out mid-show. The band continued without him for several songs before Townshend asked, "Can anyone play the drums? – I mean somebody good?" 19 year old Scot Halpin, who had bought scalped tickets came up and played the rest of the show.
KO4KG TIL there are 96 bags of human waste left behind on the Moon by the six Apollo missions that landed there.
nWLG7 TIL about Zimmerit. The textured coating that was applied to German tanks in WWII to protect against magnetic mines... despite the fact that the mines were only used widely by German forces.
PYrnJ TIL when the planned community of Levittown, NY, was opened in 1947, the builders managed to sell 1400 houses in the first 3 hours.