› added 3 years ago

97

TIL that during the Cold War, the USA tried to intimidate the Soviet Bloc by convincing them that then president Richard Nixon was an unstable lunatic who was likely to lash out for no rational reason, based on the dubious "madman theory" of foreign policy

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

9wAgD TIL of the .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer, a rifle cartridge designed for its projectile to exceed 5000 feet per second. It is based on a .378 Weatherby cartrige necked down to .22 caliber. It never achieved its goals.
QNKoe Today I learned that on April 3, 1919, Yankees centerfielder Ping Bodie defeated an ostrich in a pasta-eating contest
Lk6yV TIL thief Matthew Ryan Hahn stole a safe that contained evidence of the sexual abuse of a child. He risked life imprisonment to turn in the memory card so police could “remove this animal from the streets”
XeR6 TIL there are more slaves now, 27+ million, than any other time in our history
Oo1Z1 TIL John Mulaney helped Bill Hader develop his Stefon character on SNL after receiving an email inviting him to a club "that had everything" including "rooms full of broken glass."