› added 10 years ago

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TIL it took over a full day for people to realize what had happened at Chernobyl and to begin an evacuation.

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amYZ TIL that any domino can knock over another object up to 1.5x its size due to gravitational potential energy. In 29 dominoes, the last domino would be as tall as the Empire State Building, irrespective of first domino is so tiny (5 millimeters tall and only 1 millimeter thick).
nWdZo TIL that the bug making Gandhi more prone to nuking you in the game Civilization I is just a myth. The character is no more or less likely to drop nukes as the other AIs.
W8b9 TIL: Fresh olives are practically inedible and take several weeks of bringing/fermenting to get rid of the bitter compounds. That’s why olives taste salty.
NmnP TIL People who have facial Botox injections have difficulty identifying emotional expressions in facial photos. Scientists suspect the Botox prevents facial mirroring which hinders the brain’s ability to interpret emotions in others.
loAYA TIL about singer and pioneer sound recording artist George W. Johnson, born in 1846, who sold more than 25.000 wax cylinders. Since every recording was a "master" back then, he would record the same song over and over with several recording devices pointed at him, sometimes fifty or more times a day