› added 6 days ago

TIL about Eric the Eel's improvement. He famously won his heat in the 100 m freestyle at the Sydney Olympics, despite setting the worst time in Olympic history at 1:52, as his 2 opponents were disqualified. Incredibly, he shaved 1 minute off that time within 6 years of training starting as an adult.

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LkaZP TIL homophily describes the tendency of people to associate with those who look like them and have similar backgrounds. It is also related to assortative mating, the pattern of people (and other species) mating with those who look like them.
Y7dv7 TIL that over 71 million adults in the US are functionally illiterate.
Yk0x TIL There is a piece of music currently being played that will take 639 years to complete, ending in 2640.
Z8llp TIL When Washington became president, he scrapped the plans for "Washington monument" as he didn’t want to use public money for a personal memorial monument. Long after he died, In 1833 a small group of Washingtonians established a society to raise private funds for the project and got it built.
ZpJmD TIL about the Romanian Bridgehead. When Poland was attacked from both sides by the Nazis and Soviets, Romania offered a safe escape route for Polish troops and leadership, even allowing the transfer of the Polish gold reserves to the West.