› added 6 years ago

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TIL that the average delay of a Japanese bullet train is just 54 seconds, despite factors such as natural disasters. If the train is more than five minutes late, passengers are issued with a certificate that they can show their boss to show that they are late.

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JYd7m TIL Sculptor Michelangelo had no experience painting frescoes and did not consider himself a painter when he reluctantly took the commission for the Sistine Chapel. He even wrote a poem about how much he hated doing it.
P1rLg TIL that, The Titanic was never described as "unsinkable" without qualification until after she sank. Three trade publications (one of which was probably never published) described Titanic as "practically" unsinkable prior to her sinking.
6EbPm TIL Hitler was a highly decorated veteran of WWI. He only wore his wound badge, Iron Cross First Class, and Nazi Party Gold Badge #1 after assuming power.
v17aR TIL the reason Corgis have short legs is because they were selectively bred for a type of dwarfism, called Chondrodysplasia, over hundreds of years. This gene, FGF4, proved dominant, and there no longer exists a single purebred Welsh Corgi without the genetic condition of achondroplastic dwarfism.
b6X4a TIL that the first instance of Panda Diplomacy was by Madame Chiang, who arranged for pandas to be sent to San Francisco as a dramatic way of saying thank you. The pandas received attention, but not as much as hoped, because on their way to the US, Pearl Harbor had been bombed.