› added 5 years ago

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TIL "dolphins in the ocean" can swim "more than 50 miles an hour" with "little power input." "Research . . . appears to show that the dolphins do this by twitching their skin in such a way as to discourage the formation of turbulent vortices and turbulence which leads to drag and power dissipation."

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via reddit.com

nelMo TIL that Sneha Anne Philip is officially considered to be one of the victims of 9/11. Being a doctor who lived nearby, it's believed that she died trying to help the injured at Ground Zero. There's just one problem: no-one saw her there. Or, indeed, anywhere at all. She went missing on 9/10.
p8xle TIL 18th century sailors and pirates were adept at astronomy and maths, e.g. trigonometry and logarithms. They even took classes and sat exams on these topics. The skills gained by studying such technical fields helped them navigate the open seas, escape authorities, chase down pirates, etc.
WkpXd TIL that in 2006, Illinois declared that Pluto was given planetary status but only while it passed over the state skies.
ZLBR TIL 3M company name stands for “Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company” = 3M
QgXX TIL for severe crimes such as mutiny, the Royal navy used to punish men with “flogging round the fleet”. The criminal would be ferried from ship to ship, and whipped by the crew of every ship at port