› added 6 years ago

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TIL that in 1975, Gary Dahl invented the pet rock. He took rocks from a Mexico beach and, over the course of only half a year, would sell each rock for $4, making himself over $1.5M.

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6EjjY TIL the explosion that led to the Chernobyl nuclear accident was chemical, driven by gases and steam generated by the core runaway, not by nuclear reactions. No commercial nuclear reactor contains a high enough concentration of U-235 or plutonium to cause a nuclear explosion.
xVp4b TIL that there is a luchador that wrestles as Máximo (formerly Máximo Sexy), a stereotypically effeminate gay character, though he's straight and married to a woman in real life
l7ol1 TIL the NCAA Final Four has been held in New Orleans 5 times. The only school to win more than once was North Carolina, who won in 1982 (James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins) and 1993 (Eric Montross)
X01xr TIL: A town in Nevada STILL sounds a "sundown siren" at 6pm every evening, originally signifying that Native Americans were required to leave town by 6:30pm or face jail or fine
a8g70 TIL about Armin Meiwes; a German cannibal who killed and ate Bernd-Jürgen Brandes in 2001, as part of a cannibalistic fantasy both men shared. Brandes explicitly filmed his consent for the ordeal on camera. . In 2006, Meiwes was sentenced to life imprisonment.