› added 8 months ago

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TIL a survey found that 56% of commercial pilots admitted to sleeping while flying and 29% had woken up to find the other pilot asleep as well

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via reddit.com

ADYZ4 TIL Basil Zaharoff sold the Greek government a submarine. He then told the Turks that Greece had a submarine, so they bought two. Then he told the Russians the Turks had two submarines, so they bought two as well. None of the submarines worked.
neoLG TIL that the US may have adopted the metric system if pirates hadn't kidnapped Joseph Dombey, the French scientist sent to help Thomas Jefferson persuade Congress to adopt the system.
Y7ayZ TIL Former U.S. President Martin Van Buren argued with Congress over whether he could keep two pet tigers in the White House.
wLB9E TIL that marbles and other glass shaped through the technique of glass blowing are heated in a furnace known as the "glory hole". The term predates the more modern colloquial use of the phrase. It's use goes back as far as 1825!
WkgBN TIL Floyd Paxton was eating complimentary nuts and realized he didn’t have a way to close them if he wanted to save some for later. As a solution, he took out a pen knife and hand-carved the first bread clip out of a credit card. His company, Kwik Lok, produces billions of bread closures a year.