› added 9 years ago

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TIL of “SLAM”, a cancelled nuclear ramjet missle that could carry up to 16 thermonuclear warheads, travel for months nonstop, spew radiation wherever it went, and flew at tree top levels, killing anyone it would fly over

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xV7j1 TIL: in 2015 Queen Elizabeth visited the set of Game of Thrones and got a close look at the Iron Throne, but refused to take a seat because there's an old rule that says the Queen is not allowed to sit on a foreign throne.
neQaY TIL that starting about 7,000 years ago in Egypt, seasonal rains started moving south until rain only now falls regularly on the Ethiopian highlands. This shift forced nomadic cattle herders to settle along the Nile, leading to the first permanent Egyptian civilizations.
e0EwE TIL microwave ovens do not cook food from the "inside out." When thick foods are cooked, the outer layers are heated and cooked primarily by microwaves while the inside is cooked mainly by the conduction of heat from the hot outer layers.
ODke TIL In 2009, an estimated 31,000,000 birds died from being confused by light pollution while migrating overnight. Simply turning off the lights can potentially save tens of millions of birds from colliding with glass.
VBZQp TIL a woman had half of her brain removed when she was 8 due to a condition that caused her to have up to 150 seizures a day. Her doctors said she'd never drive, she got her license at 17. She went on to earn her bachelor's & master's degrees in just 5 years before becoming a speech pathologist.