› added 13 years ago

126

TIL that if you go anywhere outside the US border, when you return the government can detain you for as long as they want, as well as search and seize any of your property they want, an activity American citizens are supposed to be protected from by the 4th Amendment to the Constitution.

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vDVD TIL During WW2, a Cambridge professor accidentally dropped the entire United Kingdom supply of plutonium (10mg) onto a table. He sawed a hole around the spill and burned that bit of table, recovering 9mg from the Ashes. He was found out because he was too tired to fix the table.
rRppM TIL That a dog named Stella was taught how to communicate using buttons , while each button serves as a different voice line.
rvPw TIL the easiest languages to learn for English speakers are Afrikaans, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese & Romanian. This is based on the amount of time it takes for the US Foreign Service to train their diplomats before entering service abroad.
Me9Pm TIL in 1919, the U.S. Army organized a convoy of 81 vehicles from Washington, DC to San Francisco, CA. The trip took 56 travel days, broke 9 vehicles, had 21 casualties and convinced observer Dwight Eisenhower to champion the Interstate Highway System, which he signed into law 37 years later.
0wg7y TIL men ages 20 to 34 have lower grip and pinch strength than the same aged guys did three decades ago, and that the average grip strength for men ages 25 to 29 is nearly 26 pounds lower today than it was before.