› added 3 years ago

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TIL that up until a few years ago, most access routes to Switzerland, like bridges and tunnels and border crossings, were loaded with explosives to prevent an invasion into the country.

kOrOg TIL that between 2014 and 2016 an Australian electrician bunked off work roughly 140 times to play golf, covering his tracks using a crisp packet as a Faraday cage to block an electronic tracker that would have pinpointed his location.
86j8 TIL that during the 1918 flu pandemic, 62 Boston prisoners volunteered to be injected with infected tissue and sprayed with infectious aerosols with a promise of release if they survived. All of the prisoners lived, but the ward doctor died soon after.
GmMN TIL a 2006 study at McGill University found that women watching sexual imagery reach physical arousal as quickly as men and are sexually aroused by a greater range of images than men
N7JkN TIL that in the post-war Soviet Union, Russian mafioso that joined the army were referred to as "suka", or bitch, for allying with the government. The outcast suki formed their own gangs which became powerful enough to fight the original gangs. Their fighting is known as the "Bitch Wars".
jNPWp TIL the Berlin Wall was opened accidentally. After being told wrong info, a Soviet spokesman stated that border crossings would be allowed, “immediately”. Crossings were actually planned to be allowed in limited circumstances. Thousands of East Germans then ran to the border and forced it open.