› added 3 years ago

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TIL the 2019 collapse of the Thomas Cook travel agency triggered UK's largest peacetime repatriation. Called Operation Matterhorn, over 140,000 British tourists were recovered with 150 aircraft in 746 flights. During that time, the UK government briefly was UK's 5th largest airline

XElKQ TIL that ceviche fish (fish marinated in acidic juices) creates the same reaction as cooking the fish. By 'denaturing' the fish proteins (basically changing their structure) to firm up the flesh as if cooked. Then flavour to taste!
VMJyB TIL Japan's infamous suicide rate is only 4.2% higher than the US's, and their male rate is lower.
5V5aB TIL the 2004 earthquake/tsunami caused a 1,500m high ridge along the fault to collapse, generating landslides. One landslide consisted of a single block of rock some 100m high and 2 km long. The momentum of the water also dragged massive slabs of rock, each weighing millions of tons, as far as 10km.
ay6Z TIL influential sci-fi writer William Gibson once wrote a 4500-word article on Singapore titled ‘Disneyland with the Death Penalty’ for Wired. The magazine was banned in the city-state after the issue’s release.
Me1oB TIL that malaria was once used to treat syphilis. Dr. Wagner von Jauregg injected sufferers with malaria-infected blood, causing an extremely high fever that would ultimately kill the disease. Jauregg won the Nobel Prize for the treatment and it remained in use until the development of penicillin.