› added 11 years ago

126

TIL contrary to popular belief, tortoises are in fact turtles rather than part of a separate group.

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x6nQk TIL: One of the biggest hazards of smoke inhalation in a house fire is from hydrogen cyanide gas caused by combustion of modern petroleum based products like carpets and other plastics.
R7Yl9 TIL that General LeMay, responsible for the firebombing of 63 Japanese cities during WW2, said “Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.”
664X TIL that the U.S. military has banned the use of ‘toe shoes’ because of 'image concerns’
xDPk TIL that if you played the actual, framed golden record awarded to artists, it will probably play a completely different album than the one the award is for.
x6o5o TIL the KGB once smuggled a Sidewinder missile from West Germany by mailing it in pieces to Moscow. An agent earlier broke it through the back window of his Mercedes to drive back from the airbase, marked with a red cloth as required by law. He had brought it down the entire runway in a wheelbarrow.