› added 10 years ago

198

TIL A shibboleth is a word that can only be said correctly by native speakers. During WW2, American troops used the word “lollapalooza” to check unidentified people. Japanese spies would often go to areas posing as allied men, if the first two syllables come back as rorra, they would kill them.

YprNB TIL Alanis Morissette hosted an awards show in a nude suit complete with nipples and pubic hair shortly after the Janet Jackson superbowl incident.
KOnQ6 TIL of the United States Army Pigeon Service whose pigeons were trained for communication and reconnaissance purposes during WWII. During the war, the force consisted of 54,000 war pigeons and over 90% of their messages were received successfully (with some earning medals for saving Allied lives).
0w0pA TIL Japanese researchers transplanted lab-grown heart muscle cells onto a human patient's damaged heart as a successful alternative to whole heart transplant. They turned adult stem cells into heart muscle cells, placed the cells on degradable sheets, & covered the damaged parts of the heart.
8aMv8 TIL that in 2006 a secret speech by the Hungarian Prime Minister was leaked in which he admitted that they lied all the time during their term and didn't do anything useful. It provoked nationwide protests including a siege of the Hungarian Television building.
D8Ap TIL a company called Excite turned down the opportunity to buy Google in 1999 for $1 million. Google’s founders then said they would take $750,000 only for Excite to pass a second time. Google now was a market cap of $167 billion.