› added 2 weeks ago

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TIL about "doublets" or "twinlings" - two words that have the same root, but different meanings due to branching paths. For example, the Latin word "clocca" (bell) became "cloak" through French (because it looks like wearing a cloth bell) and "clock" through Dutch (because of the bell chimes).

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R5gPj TIL I learned test pilot Alvin “Tex” Johnston did a barrel roll of a prototype Boeing 707 - unauthorized - in front of a crowd of 250,000 people at the 1955 Sea Fair hydroplane races. He flew the plane upside down, and then did a final barrel roll. He was not fired the next day, but it was close.
BmxD TIL that MIT students discovered that by buying $600,000 worth of lottery tickets in the Massachusetts’ Cash WinAll lottery they could get a 10-15% return on investment. Over 5 years, they managed to game $8 million out of the lottery through this method.
VMROZ TIL: Tom Cruise is obsessed with sending his co-stars cakes, even ones he worked with decades ago. Louis Theroux, documentary maker, even went to his grandmother's 100th Birthday Party to find 100 cupcakes from Tom Cruise, after Tom worked with his cousin.
Lw8p TIL: Hitler was a creepy uncle to his Niece Geli Raubal, forbidding her to marry, having her accompanied everywhere and practically keeping her prisoner until she committed suicide in 1931, after which Hitler called her “The only woman he ever loved”
Y77rW TIL the first supersonic airliner was not the Concorde or Tu-144, but a DC-8. During a test flight in 1961 it achieved supersonic speed for 16 seconds while in a dive. Accompanying the airliner in a chase plane was Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier.