› added 1 year ago

47

TIL the IBM computer Deep Thought was named after the computer in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

JYa84 TIL that the word "sabotage" comes from the French word for clog; "sabot". When looms were industrialised, redundant workers would throw their clogs into the machinery and this became known as sabotage. It is theorised that this is also the origin of the phrase "clogged up".
yVeZV TIL US Army Maj. Gen. William Dean, captured by N. Kor. troops in 1950, was the most superior US officer captured since the fall of the Philippines. Before his capture, he led troops in brutal urban combat, knocked out a tank with a hand grenade, and survived over a month in the wild, losing 80 lbs.
neQ1Y TIL: During the interwar period, the United States operated a fleet of flying aircraft carriers. Each of these airships could carry six aircraft. After crashes destroyed all of them but the Zeppelin built USS Los Angeles, the program was cancelled.
QNZda TIL the kiwifruit is native to and originally from China
oBPwY TIL There is a mental delusion called "The Truman Show delusion" where patients believed their lives were reality television shows. One traveled to NewYork to check whether the World Trade Center had actually fallen—believing 9/11 attacks to be an elaborate plot twist in his personal story line.