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People say that every day you learn something new. And while that sounds like a cliche, it’s very much true, especially if you’re a regular user of the internet or an avid reader (in a world where people’s interest in reading is, unfortunately, declining). It’s no secret that both are an infinite source of all sorts of random facts and material on basically every topic there is, so it’s really up to you to decide how much you want to learn each day.

If you’re looking to learn something new on a regular basis, chances are you are already part of the subreddit fittingly titled ‘Today I Learned’, which is where we want to shed light on this beautiful day. On the list below, you will find numerous facts and stories, as shared by said community, so if you’re eager to scratch that itch in your brain, wait no longer and start reading, and make sure to upvote the pieces of information that intrigued you the most.

Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University, Dr. Tanya Kaefer, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions on learning.

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge A Challenger space shuttle engineer, Allan McDonald, raised safety concerns against the wishes of his employer & NASA. He was ignored; a fatal accident resulted. When McDonald spoke out, he was demoted by his company. Congress stepped in to help him. He later taught ethical decision making

todayilearned , NASA Report

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#2

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge An Olympian sold her silver medal to fund a boy's surgery. The buyer let her keep it

todayilearned , sergign/Envato (not the actual photo) Report

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Adam Chang
Adam Chang
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sad...we live in a world where kids need funding for a surgery.

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#3

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge During the Apollo 13 mission, Jack Swigert realized he had forgotten to file his tax return. NASA contacted the IRS, who agreed that he was considered ‘out of country’ and therefore entitled to a deadline extension

todayilearned , NASA Report

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Daniela Lavanza
Daniela Lavanza
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

‘Out of country’? He was litteraly out of planet! :-)

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Beak Hookage
Beak Hookage
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Now I'm thinking of that episode of Red Dwarf where Rimmer gets a huge tax bill from "Outland Revenue", and bemoans that him being a dead man three million years out into deep space won't stop them from finding him and breaking his thumbs.

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LinkTheHylian
LinkTheHylian
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Hey, our guy is in space. Can he have an extension?" "Uhh... sure. Seems unfair otherwise." "Hey, our guy in space nearly died. Can he have another extension?" "Okay, now you're making stuff up."

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Turanga Leela
Turanga Leela
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Apollo 11 astronauts had to go through US customs when they returned from the moon and declare the lunar samples.

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catastrophegirl
catastrophegirl
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

apparently the catholic church considers the moon to be part of the diocese of orlando (florida) so there might have been concerns that the IRS had some sort of weird "the moon is part of..." rules? i feel confident the IRS probably makes US astronauts in orbit do their taxes on time these days

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mhoulden
mhoulden
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There was an episode of Red Dwarf where it was plausible for the British equivalent to send a tax inspector three million years in deep space to collect it anyway.

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Stephen Lyford
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I dunno, wouldn't the spacecraft be considered sovereign US territory? :)

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Onan Hag All
Onan Hag All
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"file his tax return" , the USA seems to go out of its way to make life difficult for its citizens.

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Michael Largey
Michael Largey
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not the citizens who benefit from the way taxes are done, who just coincidently are the rich and powerful

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In a recent interview with Bored Panda, assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University, Dr. Tanya Kaefer, seconded the idea that it’s up to each person to decide how much they want to learn each day.

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“It is possible to learn something new every day, but learning is a choice, so whether or not you learn something every day is entirely up to you,” she said, adding that learning is how we do everything. “Everything we've done or know is something we've learned. There's no functioning without learning.”
#4

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge I learned that Mexico, which abolished slavery in 1837, refused the United States’ request to return escaped slaves back up north. Between 3,000 to 5,000 runaway slaves would flee to Mexico

todayilearned , Ricky Esquivel/Pexels Report

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StarCrossedFriday
StarCrossedFriday
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2 months ago

This comment has been deleted.

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#5

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Dashrath Manjhi, the "Mountain Man," spent 22 years carving a 110-meter path through a mountain using just a hammer and chisel. Motivated by grief after his wife died due to a long route to the hospital, he shortened the journey from 55 km to 15 km.

todayilearned , ABP NEWS Report

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#6

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Alanis Morrisette was dropped by her record label after disappointing sales of her first two albums. Her third album, Jagged Little Pill, is the 13th highest selling album of all time worldwide

todayilearned Report

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Discussing the benefits of browsing random facts, for instance, Dr. Kaefer pointed out that while doing so, it’s important to be aware that skimming the surface doesn’t make one an expert in the fields the facts relate to.

“Random, interesting, and fun facts can be fun and a good exercise for learning – just like our bodies, we have to exercise our brains too,” she pointed out. “For some serious, complex topics that greatly impact people's lives, having a shallow, un-nuanced understanding can be detrimental.

No one can know everything about everything, and it’s fine to choose to know a little bit about a lot of different things. You just have to be careful that you don't forget that you don't know everything about that topic.”
#7

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Unescorted women prevented men from casually assaulting them in the early 1900s with a simple clothing accessory - the hat pin, and it was so effective as a weapon that laws were passed limiting it's length in many states

todayilearned , atlasobscura Report

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Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein
Jane Jayne Jain Jeign Jein
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Sorry ladies, we can't allow you to defend yourself too well or we'll never be able to assault you, and what sort of a society would that be!"

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#8

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge At 15, Kara Robinson was kidnapped and assaulted by a serial killer for 18 hours. She managed to escape after manipulating him to feel at ease. She later helped police to capture him because she had memorized details of her surroundings

todayilearned , Kara Robinson Chamberlain Report

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T'Mar of Vulcan
T'Mar of Vulcan
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A similar thing happened in South Africa in the '80s-1990. A serial killer, Gert van Rooyen, had abducted and killed a bunch of young female pre-teens (around 12-13 years old) with the help of his lover, Joey Haarhof. The girls would trust her and she'd turn them over to Van Rooyen, who'd sexually assault and murder them. But one teen, Joan Booysen, liked the TV show MacGyver and jimmied the lock and escaped. Van Rooyen and his girlfriend k!lled themselves before they could be arrested. Six of the girls they're believed to have abducted and killed are still missing.

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#9

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge There is a study that proves across 80 pairs of jeans that women pockets are generally half the size of men for the same brand. Only 40% of them can comfortably fit an iPhone X and only 10% can fit your entire hand. In comparison 100% of male jeans can fit both.

todayilearned , jasmin chew/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Libstak
Libstak
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is despite the fact that almost every woman has complained about lack of pockets or small pockets daily, yearly since forever ago.

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As many people turn to the internet for information, they should also bear in mind that it can become a double-edged sword. “The internet plays a role both good and bad in learning. We have access to a virtually unlimited source of information, but also a lot of misinformation,” Dr. Kaefer noted.

“Our learning mechanisms don't distinguish between true facts and made-up stories, so we have to take a whole separate route to check those things. And a lot of times, if a fact is fun, we forget to check whether it's true. So that's an important step in learning from the internet.”
#10

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge The "microwave-safe" label on plastic containers only means they won't melt or warp, and doesn't guarantee that chemicals won't leach into your food when heated

todayilearned , Elyaqim Mosheh Adam/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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EM
EM
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really admire the outstanding effort Bored Panda makes to match pictures to posts.

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#11

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge During the siege of Leningrad, scientists working at the world’s largest collection of seeds protected the seeds from the threats of the cold, the hungry residents of the besieged city, rats, and their own hunger. Twenty-eight of the botanists died during the siege, protecting their collection

todayilearned , 42 North/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Sindhu P
Sindhu P
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2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some of the botanists who starved were Dimitri Ivanov, Alexander Stchukin, Liliya Rodina, M Steheglov, Georgi Kriyer, G Kovalesky, N Leontjevsky, A Malygina and A Kozrun. Also, the leader (Nikolai Vavilov), was accused of 'anti-Soviet scientific practices' and was starved to death by an a-hole called Lysenko

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#12

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Key West declared independence from the United States in 1982, then declared war, then immediately surrendered to apply for foreign aid, after being frustrated by the lack of response from the US government to complaints about a roadblock

todayilearned , Jmckean Report

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StarCrossedFriday
StarCrossedFriday
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2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

“The Conch Republic (also known as Key West and the Florida Keys) like many nations was born from trouble. The trouble started back in the dark days of March 1982, when the U.S. Federal Government placed a Border Patrol Roadblock at the Last Chance Saloon in Florida City. A seventeen mile traffic jam immediately ensued as the Border Patrol stopped every car leaving or entering the Keys, supposedly searching for illegal d***s and aliens who might be hiding under the front seats, in glove compartments, and in trunks. The media starting reporting on the unprecedented action of the Border Patrol in setting up a Border Roadblock within the United States, itself (after all, most everyone believed that the Florida Keys were indeed part of the United States!) As the stories of the traffic jam poured out across the nation and the world, visitors started canceling reservations to come to the Keys.”

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#13

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Howard Hughes was a chronic insomniac who wanted to watch movies on TV when most people were asleep, but when he first arrived in Las Vegas he discovered that it had no all-night TV stations. So he purchased a local station in 1967 and turned it into a 24/7 channel.

todayilearned , Acme Newspictures Report

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Liam Farranree
Liam Farranree
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hughes was obesessed with the movie Ice Station Zebra and would have the station play it repeatedly. Sometimes he would nod off for a while in the middle of it and when he woke up he would phone the station to tell them to play it again from the begining. I like to imagine how many times TV viewers in Las Vegas were watching this movie approach it's climax only to see the opening credits play as the movie began again from the start.

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#14

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Chinstrap penguins take more than 10,000 micro-naps a day, lasting an average of 4 seconds, for a total of more than 11 hours of daily sleep

todayilearned , US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Report

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#15

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Roger Fisher, a Harvard Law School professor who proposed putting the US nuclear codes inside a person, so that the president has no choice but to take a life to activate the country's nuclear weapons

todayilearned , Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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elmortero
elmortero
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe best would be that the person is the president. Would make them think twice before launching, and show patriotism /s

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#16

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Borat's first movie was banned in Kazakhstan but when the second was released they made a tourism campaign around "Very Nice!"

todayilearned , Kazakhstan Travel Report

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#17

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge After his death, it was revealed that Stan Lee, famous Marvel Comics writer, suffered Elder Abuse from various handlers and family members who alienated him from the other part of his family and fired his accountants, lawyers, and caretakers that have been with him for decades

todayilearned , U.S Army Report

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Jacob Ross
Jacob Ross
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That came to light a couple years before he died. I read an open letter from someone close to him begging him I cut ties with certain people. I don't know if the letter author was an abuser or someone genuinely trying to help.

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#18

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Mozart died at 35, and wrote 800 pieces, 22 pieces every year he lived

todayilearned , Stafford Choral Society Report

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Pernille
Pernille
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes I'll think of this and get sad, imagine if he had lived to 80, all the wonderful music we would have. I'also think he would have loved the '80 and '90 , where electronic instruments were perfected, and punk was alive.

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#19

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Abraham Lincoln and four other Illinois legislators jumped out of a window to prevent a quorum on a vote that would have eliminated the Illinois State Bank in 1840. It was reported that this wasn't his first time doing this to prevent a vote

todayilearned , Alexander Gardner Report

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#20

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira attempted to create an ideal human being through her daughter, Hildegart. Hildegart read at 2, spoke 4 languages at 8, joined law school at 13, becoming professor there at 18. Her mother [took her life] her when she tried to run away.

todayilearned , Unknown Report

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ENSJ
ENSJ
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Paraphrasing but her mother's reasons were: Once a sculptress identifies even the slightest of imperfections in her work, she destroys it. She never regretted doing it and said she'd do it again if presented the same circumstances. She never considered her daughter as an individual but a project that was an extension of herself. Horrible.

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#21

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge In a feat of rage, Emperor Hadrian once stabbed a slave in the eye with a pen. Feeling regretful whe he calmed down, Hadrian called the slave and told him to ask for literally anything as compensation. The slave replied "i just want my eye back"

todayilearned , Marie-Lan Nguyen Report

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Liam Farranree
Liam Farranree
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

and that slave's distant decendant would be Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride,

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#22

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Charles de Gaulle was not told about the D-Day landings until 2 days before as the British and French leaders did not believe the French could keep the information secret

todayilearned , Unknown Report

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Michael Largey
Michael Largey
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

More likely they feared he would insist on a voice in the planning, which he would have. Or maybe they just hated talking to him, which they did.

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#23

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge 20% of scientific genetics research papers have errors due to Microsoft Excel's auto-formatting of gene names into dates

todayilearned , Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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elmortero
elmortero
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or due to the researchers not know how to properly format columns so Excel DOESN'T confuse gene names with dates

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#24

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge A young couple in Japan divorce and remarry each other every 3 years to take turns using their family names, all because they can't come into agreement on which last name to use

todayilearned , Mainichi/Kayo Mukuda Report

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#25

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge DJ scratching was invented in 1975 when Grand Wizzard Theodore was playing records loudly, making his mother to enter his room to scold him. This caused him to hold the record still, accidentally moving it back and forth and liking the sound it made

todayilearned , Paulo Oliveira/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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StarCrossedFriday
StarCrossedFriday
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Unrelated, but the word ‘Wizzard’ always reminds me of Rincewind, a wizard so inept he can’t even spell the word correctly - GNU Terry Pratchett

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#26

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge The 2010 Flash Crash, during which the US stock market temporarily lost $1 trillion in value, was partly caused by Navinder Sarao, an autistic man living in his parents' London home. In a span of 5 years, Sarao made a profit of $40 million by tricking high frequency traders with custom software

todayilearned , energepic.com/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Luke Branwen
Luke Branwen
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And we really let these silly imaginary numbers dictate and ruin our lives.

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#27

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge 71 year old Bernard Gore was supposed to meet his wife and daughter in a mall in Sydney after first doing a little shopping himself. Instead, he exited a mall door leading to a stairwell labyrinth and was found dead 3 weeks later failing to find his way out

todayilearned , NSW Police Report

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Libstak
Libstak
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This was heart breaking then and now, how the heck did it take 3 weeks? Security did not do their jobs, cleaning staff too and nobody oversaw any of it.

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#28

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge The Goths besieging Constantinople in 378 AD were left stunned when one of the defenders stormed out of the city completely naked, decapitated one of the attackers and proceeded to drink the blood from his neck

todayilearned , House of History Report

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Liam Farranree
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This spectacle so traumatized the Goths that they've been gloomy and brooding ever since.

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#29

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Until earlier this year it was legal for apartments in Austin, Texas to have no windows, and that landlords often didn't disclose this in advertisements

todayilearned , Juan Miro Report

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#30

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge The Last Of Us accidentally contains an IRL phone number, that leads directly to an adult hotline service

todayilearned , hbo Report

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#31

Modesty was the reason stethoscope was invented by by René Laennec because he was not comfortable placing his ear directly onto a woman's chest in order to listen to her heart

todayilearned Report

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PattyK
PattyK
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But it was not like today’s stethoscope with long rubber or plastic tubes connecting all the pieces. Laennec’s stethoscope was just a short wooden tube, one end of which was placed on the patient’s chest and the doctor placed his ear on the other end.

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#32

When the 1930s musician Russ Columbo died from an accidental gunshot, his siblings went to great lengths to conceal the news from his mother, who had a heart condition. They wrote fake letters from him and used records to simulate his radio show. This continued until she died a decade later

todayilearned Report

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#33

Michelle Kwan is the most decorated figure skater in US history. She is also the US ambassador to Belize.

todayilearned Report

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#34

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge In Sparta, after the wedding, brides would have their hair cut short and be dressed in men's clothing so that they would appear less threatening to their groom during the wedding night.

todayilearned , Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier Report

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ROSESARERED
ROSESARERED
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

🤣😂😂🤣😆🤣😂women looking threatening to men, on their wedding night, hilarious 😂 how are we sooooo threatening

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#35

Alcohol isn't allowed on the International Space Station. It's not banned purely for intoxication or health risk. It's banned because alcohol is a volatile compound which can damage the ISS' water filtration system. NASA also bans mouthwash, aftershave and perfumes for this same reason

r/todayilearned Report

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#36

That 'Animal House' was able to film at the University of Oregon largely because the University's President had previously refused to allow 'The Graduate' to film there due to "lack of artistic merit"

todayilearned Report

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StarCrossedFriday
StarCrossedFriday
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Apparently because after the Graduate went on to become a classic, he was determined not to make the same mistake twice.

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#37

Australian Senator Bill Heffernan in 2014 felt that the new security arrangements at Parliament House were inadequate. To protest this, he smuggled in a fake pipe bomb and presented it at a Senate hearing as proof that the building was "no longer secure"

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#38

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge The Million Dollar 1988 McDonalds record winner was 13, had his mom claim it, she squandered a good chunk of it, had her BF steal what was left, lost his mom 10 years later, doesn’t talk to his sister and now trims trees

todayilearned , Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#39

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge After John Ruffo was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison, his bail was set at $10 million. Most of his immediate family put their houses up as collateral to make bail. Ruffo then disappeared and the homes of his wife, mother, mother-in-law, and others were seized by the government

todayilearned , usmarshals Report

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Carla Phillips
Carla Phillips
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why would he have been given bail after he was convicted and sentenced?

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#40

Japan's monarchy is the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world, recognizing 126 monarchs, and dating back to February 11, 660BCE with mythical beginnings. However, the current dynasty has no name and it's members have no family name and are simply referred to as the Imperial House

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Lexi
Lexi
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This title only passes to males and the current Emperor only has a daughter, so it will pass to his younger brother the Crown Prince, then on to his only son. There are no other heirs until the teen age Prince Hisahaito gets married and hopefully has a son.

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#41

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge French pirate Olivier Levasseur allegedly tossed a necklace containing a puzzle that leads to his treasure into a crowd of people moments before his execution. He told the crowd to go find it if they can

todayilearned , Gold and Gunpowder Report

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StarCrossedFriday
StarCrossedFriday
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Apparently there is a cryptogram many think was originally from said necklace - however, many have searched for the treasure and found very little. The cipher itself was first mentioned in the 1934 book Le Flibustier mysterieux: Histoire d’un trésor caché by Charles de La Roncière. No mention of Levasseur's supposed cryptogram, his necklace, or his gallows speech occurs in period sources. Modern historians of piracy regard the legend as a 20th century fiction. As always, thank you, Wikipedia.

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#42

Due to a disfunction of the ABCCII gene the majority of Asians have significantly less body odor than other populations

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Adam Jeff
Adam Jeff
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

'Disfunction'? How exactly is being less smelly a disfunction? Given that there are more Asians than non-Asians in the world, it seems problematic to call their version a disfunction and assume the Western version to be the default.

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#43

The tensor tympani muscle is a muscle within the middle ear that some people can voluntarily contract to produce a "rumbling" noise that only they can hear

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#44

The largest airline food poisoning incident occurred on Japan Airlines en route to Denmark after 197 fell ill from infected omelettes. Due to limited Japanese/Danish translators, Japanese speaking restaurant staff were recruited from Copenhagen to serve as medical translators

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Richard Graham
Richard Graham
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Elaine: Doctor, Mr. Hammen ate fish, and Randy said there are five more cases, and they all had fish, too. Rumack: And the co-pilot had fish. What did the navigator have? Elaine: He had fish. Rumack: All right, now we know what we're up against. Every passenger on this plane had fish for dinner will become violently ill in the next half hour. Elaine: Just how serious is it? Rumack: Extremely serious. It starts with a slight fever and dryness of the throat. [Oveur starts suffering from these] When the virus penetrates the red blood cells, the victim becomes dizzy, begins to experience an itchy rash... [Oveur suffers from those as well] ...then the poison goes to work on the central nervous system, severe muscle spasms followed by the inevitable drooling. [Oveur also suffers from these] At this point, the entire digestive system collapses, accompanied by uncontrollable flatulence. [Oveur does] Until finally, the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering, wasted piece of jelly. [Oveur collap

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#45

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Several elite colleges took nude photos of every incoming freshman from 1940s to 1970s including many famous people

todayilearned , Donya El alami/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Richard Graham
Richard Graham
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Here, copy and pasted, is the Wikipedia article: "Ivy League nude posture photos" The Ivy League nude posture photos were taken in the 1940s through the 1970s of all incoming freshmen at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania (which are members of the Ivy League) and Seven Sisters colleges (as well as Swarthmore), ostensibly to gauge the rate and severity of rickets, scoliosis, and lordosis in the population. The photos are simple black-and-white images of each individual standing upright from front, back and side perspectives.[1][2] Harvard previously had its own such program from the 1880s to the 1940s.[2] The larger project was run by William Herbert Sheldon and Earnest Albert Hooton, who may have been using the data to support their theory on body types and social hierarchy.[1][3]

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#46

The oldest writings mentioning yogurt are attributed to Pliny the Elder, who remarked that certain "barbarous nations" knew how "to thicken the milk into a substance with an agreeable acidity".

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#47

"Commotio cordis" is a heart failure that occurs if you get hit in the chest at just the right time, causing a disturbance in the electrical impulses. It directly affects your heart rhythm and in most cases kill with a 3 minute window to treat

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Bikumi
Bikumi
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Soo... the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique is a real thing..?

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#48

Roman Emperor Caligula would torment his senators by making them run in front of his chariot for miles. He also was so hairy that he made it a capital offense to mention goats in his presence

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Linus Nilsson
Linus Nilsson
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING regarding Caligula must always be read with a huge amount of salt. It's a known problem with roman emperors that their history is written after their death, and by rich people. If an emperor made reforms promoting the poor at the cost of the rich, they would have all sorts of lies written about them afterwards.

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#49

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge When Ben Stiller decided to play the lead role in Tropic Thunder himself, Tom Cruise called him & said that "he just couldn't get the script out of his mind" & asked him "What else is open?" Stiller suggested the role which Cruise had actually invented, studio head Les Grossman, and he took it

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JP Doyle
JP Doyle
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is the only Tom Cruise role I can think of where he is actually acting and not playing Tom Cruise.

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#50

Major orange juice producers add chemical fragrances called "flavor packs" to their juice to provide the signature taste of their brand because OJ loses its flavor during pasteurization and de-oxygenation

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Freya the Wanderer
Freya the Wanderer
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One more reason to eat an orange every morning rather than drink juice

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#51

On being rejected by the only woman he ever proposed to, Lord William Anthony Furness, 2nd Viscount Furness, took a vow of celibacy, allowing his noble titles to go extinct upon his death in 1995

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#52

Why Election Day in the US is on a Tuesday: so farmers could get to the polls and still have time to get their crops to market.

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Guess Undheit
Guess Undheit
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What makes ZERO sense about yank election is that they have TWO MONTHS between election day and inauguration, yet they demand FINAL results within 20 minutes of the polls closing. Meanwhile actual democracies in Canada and across Europe will count and recount paper ballots twice within a week, and swear in a new government within ten days of the election.

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#53

A 20 year old man ended his life after thinking he lost $750,000 on an options bet on the stock trading app Robinhood

The day after Alex took his own life, Robinhood sent an automated email suggesting the trade had been resolved and he didn't owe any money.

"Great news!" The email read, "We're reaching out to confirm that you've met your margin call and we've lifted your trade restrictions. If you have any questions about your margin call, please feel free to reach out. We're happy to help!"

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Huddo's sister
Huddo's sister
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This sounds eerily similar to the Robo Debt crisis we had in Australia, except it took way longer for them to admit their mistake. People on government assistance payments were told they owed huge amounts of money, based on the computer determining their average pay etc. Many people took their own lives because they couldn't pay it.

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#54

Miyairi Norihiro is a modern legendary Japanese swordsmith who became the youngest person qualify as mukansa and won the Masamune prize in 2010. However, none of his blades are recognized as an ōwazamono as his blades would need to be tested on a cadaver or living person

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Auntriarch
Auntriarch
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2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh crikey, then Terry Pratchett didn't make that up?

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#55

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge The codes which allow the President of the U.S. to authorize a nuclear attack are printed on a plastic card nicknamed "the biscuit." The president is supposed to carry the biscuit at all times

todayilearned , Sawyer Sutton/Pexels Report

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StarCrossedFriday
StarCrossedFriday
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The terrifying thing is that this kind of power is left in the hands of literally one person: the POTUS. The secretary of defence is required to verify the order once given, but cannot veto it. And POTUS can authorise it even if no one attacked the US first - I just do not trust Trump with this kind of power. Apparently historically the authority is often delegated to a number of military officers, but somehow I can’t imagine Donald giving up this ‘power’

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#56

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Coolio was actually in his early 30s when he recorded Gangsta's Paradise, and its iconic line "I'm 23 now, but will I live to see 24? The way things is goin' I don't know"

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Jacob Ross
Jacob Ross
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Coolio was also reportedly upset with Weird Al's senup of the song, titled "Amish Paradise." The ironic thing is that while Coolio did write the lyrics to his own song, he used the instrumentals from Stevie wonder's pastime Paradise. His own song is essentially to Stevie Wonder song what weird Al's was to him

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#57

Arnold Schwarzenegger Pays $1 To Warner Bros Every Year For His Infamous Mr. Freeze Costume From Batman And Robin.

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#58

Germany built huge artillery during WW1 where each shot would wear out the gun so much that shells had increasing diameter and had to fired in the right order

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#59

After his journey from Japan in 1614, English sailor John Saris returned home with 'Japanese erotic art'. The incident ended his career as a merchant.

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#60

The previous heir to North Korea is believed to have lost his position as the heir after he tried getting into Disneyland in Japan with a fake passport. He was then exiled from the country and later assassinated him in 2017 after many failed attempts

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STress (I/me)
STress (I/me)
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There was only one previous attempt, in 2006, at Budapest airport. The successful one took place in Malaysia, after four North-Korean agents duped two women to "conduct a prank", which ended by injecting a VX-nerve agent.

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#61

Because American and British generals insisted The French unit that helped liberate Paris would be all white, a white french unit had to be shipped in from Morocco, and was supplemented with soldier from Spain and Portugal. Making it all white but not all French

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Adam Jeff
Adam Jeff
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not just 'supplemented' with Spanish and Portuguese - the first unit to enter Paris, 9th company of the 2nd armoured division known as 'La Nueve', was almost entirely composed of Spanish Republicans.

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#62

Robert Shaw, who played Quint in Jaws, died at age 51 when he was driving with his wife and son in Ireland. He suddenly got ill, stopped the car, got out and collapsed on the roadside

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#63

There's a School in Washington State in which their school bus has to cut through Canada twice a day every day to take kids to and from school

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Huddo's sister
Huddo's sister
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have family living in a town on the Victorian side of the Vic/NSW border. To get to the town you have to cross into NSW or drive a further 1.5hrs. This made it difficult during Covid, when the borders were closed. My mum had to get permission to cross the border, which thankfully was approved.

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#64

Robin Williams was the one who suggested that Sid Meier‘s name should be put on each of his games

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#65

The largest swimming pool in the US was so large, lifeguards needed rowboats to patrol it. Fleishhaker Pool, built in San Francisco in 1924, measured 1,000 x 150 feet, contained 6.5 million gallons of water, and could hold 10,000 swimmers. In 1999 it was turned into parking for the zoo

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#66

In the 1800s, individuals secured government jobs through connections to presidents, not by merit. This practice ended after a disgruntled job-seeker assassinated President James A. Garfield, whom he believed owed him a government appointment

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#67

30 Interesting And Fun Facts For Your Daily Dose Of New Knowledge Hulk Hogan helped prevent Jesse Ventura from starting a wrestlers union

todayilearned , WWE Report

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#68

A 'needs repair' US supercomputer with 8,000 Intel Xeon CPUs and 300TB of RAM was won via auction by a winning bid of $480,085.00

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#69

David Cross (Tobias Funke Actor) has feuded with Larry the Cable Guy, James Lipton, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Creed's lead singer

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Daniel Atkins
Daniel Atkins
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Are these from acting roles I hope? Kind of hard to feud with cartoon chipmunks and not look crazy.

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#70

In 2021, a single deli in New Jersey that was publicly traded managed to achieve a market capitalization of over $100 million despite doing only $35,000 in sales across two years. The deli's largest shareholder was the wrestling coach of the high school next door

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