› added 5 years ago

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TIL that a 6 year old boy acknowledged by the Dalai Lama as the next "Panchen Lama", the 2nd highest Tibetan spiritual leader, was kidnapped by China in March 1995. He was replaced by the son of members of the Chinese Communist Party. China has not mentioned the boy since May 1995.

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E11ZV TIL that the main turrets on a battleship like the USS Missouri would fall out if the ship were to capsize because the main turrets are not attached to the ship directly and are kept in place by their mass.
jnAR TIL an executive wanted to change the title of “Back to the Future” to be “Spaceman from Pluto” as he didn’t think it would be successful. Director Zemeckis asked help from Spielberg, who wrote a note back telling the executive he had a great sense of humor. The idea was never mentioned again.
YpvRZ TIL Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH) is a protein derived from the blood of Megathura crenulata limpets and is critical for making medicines. KLH cannot be synthetically made, making the mollusks' serum worth $100,000 per liter.
PjjG TIL Survivors of Australia’s infamous “Ash Wednesday” bushfires reported houses exploding before the fire could touch them due to the air pressure change, steaks found cooked well-done in deep freezers, a car moved 90m from the cyclonic fire storm and sand turned to glass.
VB1bm TIL it’s not only heavy atoms that decay – even a single proton can decay with a half-life of 1.67x10^34 years (a septillion times longer than the current age of the universe)