› added 9 months ago

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TIL that Harrison Okene (a cook) survived 3 days at the bottom of the ocean in a sunken ship by finding an air pocket

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xbKk TIL that in 1970 the US Postal Service decided on a strike after a Congressional decision to raise the wages of postal workers by only 4%, at the same time as Congress raised its own pay by 41%
GY6bN TIL: The inventor of the Lava Light, an accountant, originally didn't envision his product associating with groovy psychedelic hippie culture. An ad for them in the straight-laced American Bar Association Journal pitched an "executive" desk version mounted on a walnut base beside a ballpoint pen.
ONk6 TIL of the US 77th Division’s “Lost Battalion”, nine WWI companies that held their ground in the Argonne for six days after accidentally advancing too far; surrounded by Germans, shelled by their own artillery, and low on rations and ammunition, only 194 out of approximately 544 men were rescued
v1M4 TIL Philosophy majors outperform English majors on the GRE writing section
l7Rg5 TIL about Reverse Polish notation, which is a different style of writing math equations. 3+4 is instead written as 3 4 +. One pro is that it removes the need for the Order of Operations.