› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Marie Curie’s notebook has to be kept in a lead-lined box, and won’t be safe to handle for another 1,601 years. If you want to visit some of her other person items, you have to sign a liability waiver.

Read more factually.gizmodo.com

via reddit.com

4kOlN TIL the Albanian National Football Team was once arrested at Heathrow airport for walking out with over £2500 worth of goods at a duty-free shop thinking “duty-free” meant “all free”
xLZB TIL “&” used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet. The name ampersand comes from the fact that early 1800s school children reciting their ABCs concluded with “&” by saying “X, Y, Z, and per se and” (“per se” means “by itself”)
LQ6E9 TIL rhesus macaque monkeys from Asia were released in Florida's Silver Springs park 100 years ago. Today there are thriving colonies across Florida, many carrying Herpes B (which is harmless to monkeys but deadly to humans). 50 people have been infected with Herpes B and 21 have died since 1932.
vAeK TIL that in the U.S. state of Maine, now famous for it’s lobster, fish and shellfish were once considered poverty food, and people would bury lobster shells in their yards so their neighbors would not learn they were reduced to eating lobster.
d1G9 TIL A woodpecker’s tongue wraps around it’s brain to protect it while it hammers at 1500 g-force units