› added 9 years ago

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TIL during WWII, prisoners in a Russian gulag escaped into the Siberian wilderness, walked hundreds of kilometers through blinding snow to Lake Baikal, crossed the Mongolian border, traversed the Gobi desert and hiked across the Himalayas to reach freedom in India. 4000 km… entirely on foot.

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w7ZJ TIL one of the inspirations for Ian Fleming’s character James Bond was Dusan Popov, a double agent that handed J. Edgar Hoover the plans for the Pearl Harbor attack. Hoover however, didn’t trust the double agent and did not pass on the information.
kJO1d TIL I learned about Amorphous Globosus. That animals can be born as a literal ball of organs. It’s thought to be a result of twin pregnancy in which one twin does not have enough room in the womb and is absorbed by the other. It’s unable to survive outside the womb due to a lack of working organs.
yQPmw TIL "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner" is a phrase that came from historic vegas, which used to offer a chicken dinner at most casinos. The cost of the chicken dinner was $1.79, which included a potato and veggie. After winning on the standard $2 bet you could treat yourself to a chicken dinner.
a1bo TIL that J.K. Rowling can go to Universal Studios and tell them to change anything about the Harry Potter area if it is incorrect, not accurate to the book, or even if she doesn’t like it. (Link is contract)
BrjVe TIL For the movie Star Wars, the sound designer for the Stormtrooper's blasters came up with the sound of the blaster during a family backpacking trip. He hit the guy-wire of an AM radio transmitter tower with a hammer and recorded the sound with a microphone close to the impact.