› added 11 years ago

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TIL cellphones in Japan can’t turn off the shutter noise in order to protect the privacy of people.

Read more naruhodo.jp.net

via reddit.com

GAj TIL that in 1940 two Australian aircraft collided and stuck together mid-air, and made a safe landing still stuck together.
4e65 TIL Bahia Bakari, a 12 year old French girl, was the sole survivor of an Airbus A310 crash near Comoros that killed 152 people. She could barely swim and had no life vest, but clung to a piece of aircraft wreckage for over 9 hours before being rescued.
6v0l TIL that US veterans can have Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor, engraved in their headstones as a religious symbol.
BrpyW TIL a Harvard professor who had worked with Bill Gates called him shortly after he had left to start Microsoft. The professor recalled, "He had moved to Albuquerque... to run a small company writing code for microprocessors, of all things. I remember thinking: 'Such a brilliant kid. What a waste.'"
1AQr TIL Orson Welles once hired an all-black cast playing MacBeth in 1948, trying to give black actors a chance without being funny or exotic, playing the classics.