› added 1 year ago

282

TIL about "Staff D" at the CIA

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via reddit.com

dDvmQ TIL that in 1885 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used 300,000 pounds of explosives to annihilate Flood Rock island in New York City's East River as part of clearing Hell Gate for safer navigation. It's been described as "the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb".
XEkwQ TIL the reason why clocks run clockwise. They do because in the Northern hemisphere that's how sundials cast shadow
O80X TIL there are 11 surviving people born in the 1800s.
eEb5 TIL the rover ‘Opportunity’ had an planned 90 day duration of activity. Almost 11 years later it is still functioning and has provided a vast amount of scientific observations.
ObYR TIL that a “fossil word” is a word that is generally obsolete but remains in use because it is part of an idiom. For example, amok as in “run amok”, or turpitude as in “moral turpitude”.