› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the Dutch would ask Germans to pronounced ‘Scheveningen’ during WWII to identify them. Also with the Flemish, they would get people to say 'Schild en Vriend’ when trying to identify French-speaking spies [Section Four].

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7rJ8b TIL Chess grandmasters can lose 10 pounds and burn 6,000 calories just by sitting
v1wlx TIL Benjamin Franklin attempted to predict the death of his competitor, Titan Leeds. When Leeds was still alive he posted an obituary anyways. When Leeds challenged it, Franklin insisted he was an imposter. When Leeds died in 1738 Franklin publicly commended the impostors for ending their charade
a8610 TIL Ants get their sleep through power naps, with the average worker ant taking 250 one-minute naps in a day.
1DMP TIL that in 1994, a Boy Scout named David Hahn created a nuclear breeder reactor for his Eagle Scout project. It emitted 1000 times the natural background radiation and had to be confiscated by the government.
J1X11 TIL that up to half of the current Cherokee nation can trace their lineage to a single Scottish fur trader who married into the tribe in the early 1700's.