› added 1 year ago

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TIL, the Finnish air force academy still uses a swastika on its flag and insignia. Finnish use of the swastika was unrelated to their alliance with Nazi Germany, and predated Nazi adoption of the symbol. Finland stopped using the swastika in most other parts of the military for obvious reasons.

4kbEg TIL that China "overtook" Europe in terms of GDP. In 1960 China had 59B, Europe 900B. In 1995 China had 699B, Europe 6T. As today China has around 19T and Europe 18T (All these datas are approximated). In the end, one country became "richer" than 20+ countries together in less than 70 years
kJjZd TIL Secret Story is a Portuguese reality show similar to Big Brother except all the houseguests have a secret. In 2011 a man was arrested under suspicion of being a serial killer known as the Lisbon Ripper after his son applied to be on the show with the secret that his dad was the Lisbon Ripper.
kgKm TIL that the only method used to send escape tools to WWII POWs that was never discovered by the Germans was hiding silk maps, metal tools, and compasses in Monopoly game boards - allowing at least 744 airmen to escape POW camps.
ZK9R TIL Chunosuke Matsuyama, a Japanese Seamen, sent a message in a bottle in 1784 that his ship had wrecked. It washed up in 1935 in the village where he was born.
yKaV TIL that when compared to a traditional plastic bag, a canvas or cotton reusable bag would have to be reused a total of 171 times to offset the higher carbon emissions, but that the average cotton bag is used only 51 times before being thrown away.