› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Noshir Gowadia, one of the lead engineers for the B-2 stealth bomber, is serving a 32 year prison sentence for selling classified information to the Chinese Government (in particular cruise-missile and jet related stealth technology).

Read more bbc.com

via reddit.com

OGnP4 TIL Hot-dog diplomacy -- a “soft-power” tactic of American international relations -- started when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planned a picnic lunch for King George VI of Great Britain's official state visit in 1939. King George apparently asked for seconds and washed it all down with beer.
KOjwG TIL that the brand name Häagen-Dazs doesn't actually mean anything—it was just made up by American founder Reuben Mattus to sound Danish, though when pronounced it means roughly "garden toilet" in the language.
aw9oN TIL that Iraq dug extensive trenches prior to the Gulf War. The US army responded by mounting plows on tanks, and drove them through 70 miles of trenches guarded by 8,000 soldiers. Most Iraqi soldiers were buried alive, making a body count impossible. There were zero American casualties.
wLYLY TIL the Sama-Bajau, a sea-faring and nomadic people, have physical adaptations that enable them to see better and dive longer underwater. It was recently discovered that they have evolved bigger spleens that provides a larger reservoir of oxygenated red blood cells.
4XNXw TIL that the original iphone prototypes were so secretive that the engineers had their own OS called the 'skankphone' only a few engineers got to see the real OS and worked together debugging code through a curtain.