› added 3 years ago

231

TIL that Area 51, aka Homey Airport or Groom Lake, was actually a testing facility for historical, technologically advanced military planes such as the Lockheed A-12. The US government's secrecy over the nature of these vehicles is what gave birth to myths about UFOs.

Read more cbsnews.com

via reddit.com

Wk9r9 TIL that an original copy of the Declaration of Independence was bought at a Tennessee thrift store for just $2.48 along with a candelabra and a set of salt and pepper shakers. It was then sold to a Utah firm for $477,650, nearly 200,000 times the original price.
5YjaB TIL that the first science fiction convention was held over 100 years ago. Like many that came after it featured cosplay and panels and was a disastrous financial failure.
a0AA TIL if all welfare spending went directly (no bureaucracy) to all housholds in povery it would be over $61,000 per year a family
xL8w TIL the Marines use a non-lethal heat beam to ward off people “causing a feeling similar to being on fire”
POlL TIL Germany has a “Codetermination” law that balances the interests of workers and capitalists by allowing workers to elect half the board directors in any corporation larger than 2000 people. In corporations between 500 and 2000 people, the workers can elect 1/3 of the board of directors.