› added 7 years ago

140

TIL Basil Zaharoff sold the Greek government a submarine. He then told the Turks that Greece had a submarine, so they bought two. Then he told the Russians the Turks had two submarines, so they bought two as well. None of the submarines worked.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

xV9l1 TIL the FBI supplied 48 police agencies with Stingray surveillance hardware that mimics cell phone towers, and had them sign non-disclosure agreements to stop them confirming their use of it or its capabilities to anyone, including courts of law. Cases would be dismissed rather than expose the tech.
9wK76 TIL about Fucking Hell. is a German pale lager, a Pilsner. It is named after Fucking, the previous name of the village of Fugging in Austria; hell is the German word for 'pale' and a typical description of this kind of beer. The beer's name was initially controversial
GYmDg TIL in 1945 the Soviet Union invited top leaders of the Polish government in exile to Moscow under a promise of safe conduct to participate in talks on the post war government. Upon their arrival, they were instead arrested, tortured, and convicted in subsequent show trials as German collaborators
ZXGD TIL the US gives Israel $3.1 Billion per year, or $8.5 million per day, in military aid even though their arms industry is one of the strongest in the world
NXPKE TIL some great white sharks that gather seasonally around Mexico’s Guadalupe Island hang out together. They tend to be most social when looking for food — it's basically a way to “eavesdrop” on other sharks and find an easy meal.