› added 10 years ago

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TIL that “rods” and “hogshead” are actual measurement units, and when Grandpa Simpson claims his car “gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that’s the way I like it”, he’s boasting about getting just shy of 0.002 MPG.

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xag0 TIL that breasts don’t just bounce up and down, but in a figure-8 pattern
AbWo TIL in WW2 that Raymond Collishaw, leading pilots who were outnumbered and outgunned, flew their only Hawker Hurricane from base to base and on as many missions as possible to make the Italians believe that they had many. The plan worked as the Italians spread their resources out thinly.
N7DnQ TIL that there is another type of diamond called Lonsdaleite, which are naturally produced at meteorite impact sites. They are about 58 percent harder than regular diamonds, and are much rarer and more valuable.
j4ep TIL in Kyoto, Japan there are five temples that have blood-stained ceilings. They use the floorboards from a castle where warriors killed themselves after holding off against an army for eleven days. You can still see footprints and outlines to this day.
E1N4x TIL an aerodynamic wind tunnel was installed at the base of the Eiffel tower in 1909. The tunnel was used to carryout out thousands of tests, including those on Wright Brothers airplanes and Porsche automobiles. The tower had a laboratory used by scientists to study meteorology, physiology.