› added 4 years ago

117

TIL a Russian eagle named "Min" & 3 other eagles being tracked by scientists unexpectedly flew into Iran/Pakistan; the birds racked up so many out-of-network data roaming charges on SMS text transmitters that scientists had to take out a loan & ask for help on social media to pay off the phone bill.

Read more bbc.com

via reddit.com

VjLD TIL In the 1950s, the French created an anti tank weapon for airborne troops by strapping 75mm recoilless cannons to several hundred Vespa scooters. The cannon goes between the driver’s legs, and off the front of the scooter.
d8Gr9 TIL the captain of the Costa Concordia, a cruise liner which ran aground in Italy in 2012, killing 32 people, was jailed for an extra year because he abandoned the ship and his passengers rather than staying on board to assist in their rescue.
E1LP0 TIL Radiohead were so inspired by iron lungs, they went into a hospital to shoot one in order to use it as the artwork for their second album. However they found it boring and instead used footage of a PCR mannequin. They said it expressed "sensations of extasy and agony, simultaneously".
dKkZ TIL Gaius Duillius, a Roman Consul, was so esteemed during the first Punic War that the senate awarded him theme music to accompany him to and from dinner for the rest of his life
J1X6V TIL Rare Earth Elements are actually fairly abundant. The rarest of REEs (thulium) is still 125 times more prevalent in the earth's crust than gold - and the most prolific REE (cerium) is 15,000 times more abundant. The name really refers to difficulty of finding large deposits or seams.