› added 1 year ago

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TIL that after the USS Thresher submarine sank & imploded in 1963 due to construction and engineering oversights, an admiral remarked: "...it is important that we re-evaluate our present practices where, in the desire to make advancements, we may have forsaken the fundamentals of good engineering."

Read more engineering.vanderbilt.edu

via reddit.com

awrwL TIL about "paired kidney exchange", which allows you to donate your kidney that wasn't a match for your intended recipient (spouse, child, etc.) to a stranger but in turn receive a kidney that is a match for your loved one. Instead of two people going without a transplant, both get a transplant.
X01ak TIL of the Antikythera Mechanism, a device discovered from a shipwreck in Greece. It has a calendar, star charts, planetary alignments, moon phases, etc. It is estimated to be created in first or second century BC.
6OjX TIL a woman’s clitoris at puberty is 1.7x larger than birth, at 32 it is 4x larger, and by the time a woman reaches menopause it’s 7x larger!
ep6y6 TIL sonar is lethal. At 235 decibels, the vibrations can rupture your lungs and cause brain hemorrhaging.
neRKY TIL the surname "Esposito" and its variants comes from children who were abandoned ("exposed") in Italy (before the XVII century, when the law forbade it). Every person with that surname today descends from an exposed child that kept the surname the orphanage once gave them.