› added 8 months ago

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TIL that the top secret SOG operators in the Vietnam war had trouble hiding their boot prints on Viet Cong trails, even trying special boots with bare footprint soles. They eventually collected 20,000 pairs of used boots from US combat hospitals and air dropped them to the NVA and Viet Cong.

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LQj4v TIL of the madman theory, a political theory commonly associated with the foreign policy of U.S. president Richard Nixon and his administration, who tried to make the leaders of hostile communist bloc countries think Nixon was irrational and volatile so that they would avoid provoking the U.S
8eGWV TIL that the BMI cutoff to be considered obese is lower for Asian-Pacific populations (≥25 kg/m^2) vs the WHO standard (≥30)
5Yx59 TIL that the word Boycott is named after an Irish landlord named Charles Boycott. After Boycott attempted to evict 11 tenants, the local community decided to shun him. Workers would not work for him, traders would not trade with him, and the postman would not deliver the post.
VMwQG TIL on the Korean island of Jeju there is a community of women divers (Haenyeo) who carry on a centuries old tradition of free diving for seafood delicacies. Now declining in numbers due to commercial fishing, most Haenyeo today are between 60-80 years old and have been diving over 50 years.
exN6 TIL that there’s a company in Switzerland called Algordanza that will turn your ashes into a diamond for your family. The color of the diamond is determined by all kinds of factors, however diamonds made from people that had gone through Chemo are usually distinctively a lighter color than the rest.