› added 6 years ago

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TIL the helicopter that crashed during the Bin Laden raid did so because in the training exercises, they used a chain fence, rather than a solid wall like what surrounded the real compound. The solid wall meant heat got trapped and rose up, causing the helicopter to have different flight properties.

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gr5A9 TIL that when an apiary needs a new queen the farmer can't just put one in or the bees may kill her because she smells unfamiliar, so what the farmers do is lock the little queen in a cage with a door made of sugar, so that by the time the workers eat enough sugar for her to leave they are familiar.
BL9L TIL There are two Underground stations at Victoria in London that are connected and were built more than a century apart
J16XQ TIL: The U.S. Airforce assigns aircraft to be "Wild Weasels". These aircraft act as bait to draw anti-aircraft fire, allowing the squad to locate and destroy the anti-aircraft batteries. Their motto is "YGBSM" or "You Gotta Be Sh*ttin' Me".
9YJ87 TIL U.S.A has an official strategic plan to combat a zombie apocalypse. Its called as Counter-Zombie Dominance Plan, or “CONPLAN 8888-11". The first line of the plan states, “This plan was not actually designed as a joke.”
9wvmM TIL that in 1984, an elephant in a German zoo killed 3 hippos by opening a water valve while playing and thus filling their pool with 55°C hot water. The water generated steam that interfered with their breathing, and the hippos (two adults and one baby) died of shock.