› added 9 years ago

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TIL South Korea, despite having completed the transistion to digital broadcast (ATSC) in 2012, still maintains analogue broadcast near its borders for North Koreans watching South Korean TV in secret.

X0eW8 TIL that the Castle Bravo nuclear test was 3x as powerful as the designers expected. This was due to unexpected fission of lithium-7, which greatly increased the yield of the other nuclear reactions.
oVMK TIL that after hitting his head in the shallow end of a swimming pool, a man awoke with the condition known as aquired musical savant syndrome. He had become a great pianist without ever learning to play.
QJ6ad TIL in 1933, in a publicity stunt for a Mae West movie named "It ain't no Sin", a Hollywood Press Agent bought 50 parrots and had taught them to squawk "It ain't no sin!" Then the movie changed titles and the parrots were subsequently released in South America, still repeating "it ain't no sin".
LomP TIL: An Armorer at Barrett Firearms once received a call from US Marines while they were engaged in a firefight and their Barrett rifle was malfunctioning. He walked them through how to repair it over the phone, enabling them to engage their enemies.
X0Vkr TIL that, among many other things, Air Force General Curtis LeMay is credited as being one of the two people that are responsible for Judo surviving World War II. Martial Arts training was banned for the populace during the Occupation of Japan, but LeMay instituted it into USAF training regimen.