› added 6 days ago

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TIL about the Soviet 'Dead Hand' system — an automated doomsday mechanism designed to launch nuclear retaliation strikes without human intervention after detecting incoming missiles

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via reddit.com

YpXrv TIL Hawaiian shirts are called 'Aloha shirts' in Hawaii. More subdued versions are "considered formal wear in business and government and are thus regarded as equivalent to a shirt, coat, and tie". Everyone wears Hawaiian shirts to work every day.
m1VBP TIL There is a word called “Tittynope” which means: A small quantity of anything left over. This word is no.11 on a list of the most unusual words according to culturesconnection.com.
GY9JN TIL Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's younger sister, almost married future Canadian prime minister John Turner. "It was “instant attraction … fairy tale stuff” with the young bachelor-lawyer and there were rumours about a “secret visit” to London and an order from the Queen to stop seeing him
PB7w TIL Betteridge’s Law states: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”
W67A TIL: Connecticut has the fifth toughest gun control laws in the US