› added 9 years ago

295

TIL The US Army Special Forces have a training exercise where they have to liberate a fake country called “Pineland” in the style of a LARP. Since the exercise is based within an actual town, actual civilians are often called upon to preform roles such as shopkeepers or torturers.

6Oa7 TIL of Lafayette, a Frenchman from the revolutionary war who later toasted “to the perpetual union of the united states. it has always served us in times of storm. one day it will save the world”. American troops sent to France in world war 1 visited the grave and said “Lafayette, we are here”
wLbO6 TIL Washington set the two-term President tradition. He declined a 3rd term because "The line between Parties” had become “so clearly drawn” that politicians “regard neither truth nor decency; attacking every character without respect to persons who happen to differ from themselves in Politics."
0x9v TIL in 1940, 11-year-old Audrey Hepburn studied ballet in occupied Holland. To aid the resistance, the students performed in secret while Nazi patrols roamed nearby. Applause was forbidden, and later Hepburn said, “The best audience I ever had made not a single sound at the end of my performance.”
R7rj TIL that people from Niger are called Nigeriens, whereas people from Nigeria are called Nigerians
4X0PR TIL Royal Bank of Canada has a program that draws students for a summer-long challenge to develop solutions to real-world business problems, like detecting sophisticated cyber bots. The bank files patents to protect the technology and use students' innovation in their business