› added 9 years ago

435

TIL that during the Manhattan Project, the emergency nuclear reactor shutdown (SCRAM) mechanism was simply a man with an axe.

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nWxZ7 TIL that Howard Hughes inherited his father's business in 1924 at the age of 18. He was paid an annual salary of 50k$ (equivalent to 879 649$ in 2023). He also charged all major expenses such as planes, automobiles, and houses, to the company.
NXn5N TIL about Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (or the "tooth in eye" surgery) where a part of a tooth is implanted into an eye to restore patient's vision
GALGJ TIL that Tarrare, a man living in the 18th century, had a bizarre endless appetite. He ate a meal made for 15 people in one sitting, live puppies, cats and snakes and it got so bad while hospitalised he attempted to eat corpses from the morgue, patient's blood and a suspected one year old toddler
XrYQ TIL two Nazi submarines declined to surrender when Berlin fell and instead submerged for two months before landing in Argentina. One is said to have offloaded a Nazi officer before being detected.
vPB0x TIL that Canola is actually a contraction of "Canadian Oil, Low Acid"