› added 7 years ago

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TIL Ken Ilgunas lived in a van for two years while obtaining his graduate degree at Duke to avoid debt. This is also known as “vandwelling”. His advice for “vandwellers” is don’t drink any liquid before going to bed, come to terms with celibacy, look normal, ensure stealth, and bring essentials.

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DQLwr TIL 145 Polish pilots, representing some five percent of Fighter Command’s overall strength, claimed 203 German aircraft for the loss of 29 of their number killed in the Battle of Britain. This amounts to 15 percent of the Command’s total score
QNEPa TIL of the Wild Atlantic Way, a tourist trail running down the west side of Ireland. The trail runs for 2,500km, including Ireland's most northerly and southerly points (Malin Head and Mizen Head).
kyRE TIL in 1958, the Chinese captured a US Sidewinder missile just four days after it was introduced into combat when it got stuck in a Chinese jet during a dogfight with Taiwan aircraft. It was reverse-engineered into the Soviet AA-2 Atoll (K-13) missile and used against US planes in Vietnam.
epwD TIL the famous “We can do it!” WWII propaganda poster only achieved popularity during the 1980’s. During the war, it was strictly internal to Westinghouse, displayed only during February 1943, and was not for recruitment but to exhort already-hired women to work harder.
B4BK TIL the reason rubbing alcohol burns when you put it on cuts is because exposed nerve cells in the cut that normally detect hot temperatures have their pain threshold lowered by alcohol - which causes our body temperature to cause a burning sensation.