› added 10 years ago

67

TIL That the Soviet Union, and now Russia, have a fail-deadly system which automatically launches a full scale nuclear attack in the event that authoritative command is incapacitated. It uses light, seismic, radioactive, and overpressure systems to activate the launch. It is still in use today.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

rR7Ke TIL Piper Perri the pornstar known for that five black guys meme ;left her 2 year-old son with her drug addict boyfriend to attend a shoot. Shortly after her leaving, the child was hospitalized and pronounced brain dead with symptoms of shaken baby syndrome. The child was declared dead days after.
awZWN TIL that during a 26-year affair with Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy did not divorce his wife. Publicists kept the affair secret outside of Hollywood. Even after he died in Hepburn's presence, they said Tracy had been alone. Out of respect for his family, Hepburn did not attend his funeral.
yQYlp TIL Researchers submitted absurd fake studies to several feminist academic journals, to check their quality. Examples included copied passages of "Mein Kampf", a report on moon meetings with vulva shrines and chaining "priviliged" pupils. Several papers were published and one was called "exemplary".
rNybM TIL Matt Groening named the main members of the Simpsons family (apart from Bart) after his own family (ex. Homer Groening is Matt's father)
e0JAD TIL Robin Williams was instrumental in the early success of Audible as an investor and creator of the first weekly program