› added 6 years ago

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TIL of Seafarer Abandonment. Sailors and the ship they're on can be completely abandoned by their employers in a foreign port, with no wages, way home, fuel or even food or water. Sometimes they can even be detained by the country they're abandoned in.

Read more seafarersrights.org

via reddit.com

VBW7p TIL the distributor for the movie Snowpiercer (2013) requested that the scene involving a fish be removed, but director Bong Joon-ho convinced them to keep it in by lying about his father being a fisherman and claiming the scene was dedicated to him. Bong's father was never a fisherman.
BgnyK TIL that in 1979, Dutch broadcaster NOS began transmitting computer programs over the radio. Listeners could record the programs on audio cassettes and use those cassettes in computers that used cassettes as data storage medium
XpNE TIL Mary Anderson, inventor of the modern windscreen wiper was told “we do not consider it to be of such commercial value as would warrant our undertaking its sale”, when she tried to sell her patent. Many company’s went on to implement her device after her patent was expired.
v1r0j TIL That screws are "righty tightly, lefty loosey" because right handed people are more common and arm supination(forearm rotation outward) is stronger than pronation(inward) for right handed individuals. This way tightening bolts uses the most torque. This is why you're left hand can loosen easier.
WkP59 TIL that nearly all of China's state-level and federal-level leadership started off as engineers