› added 10 years ago

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TIL that in December 1943, mustard gas caused 628 allied casualties, with 83 killed, following a German bombing raid on Bari in southern Italy. In 1959, it was revealed that the gas had actually come from an anchored US transport ship that was carrying 2000 mustard gas bombs.

b97p9 TIL The reason that US money is green is because according to the U.S. Bureau of Printing and Engraving, the ink was plentiful and durable and the color green was associated with stability
m17VY TIL about the Gaia Theory, which suggests that Earth’s living organisms and physical environment work together as a single, self-regulating system. The idea proposes that life doesn’t just adapt to Earth’s conditions, but actively helps shape and stabilize them over long periods of time.
wP8P TIL there’s a city in Georgia with a golf cart path infrastructure over the whole town, where the large majority of the population own golf carts and the kids grow up driving them instead of cars.
Bgpbr TIL about the 1905 Battle of Tsushima between Japanese and Russian steel battleships. The Japanese sunk 21 Russian warships and captured another 5, including the flagship. Only three Russian ships made it back to a Russian port
xVYZo TIL about the French Paradox: people who had bad habits, such as consumption of lots of fatty foods, chronic smoking, etc, lived longer in some towns of Burgundy than people in other towns. Why? - They were drinking more burgundy grapes that absorbed an antioxidant molecule produced by mushrooms.