› added 9 years ago

315

TIL that in 2008, Christopher Hitchens, then a supporter of waterboarding as a form of interrogation, was waterboarded, and quickly changed his point of view

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mxwDP TIL Differences in traits between wheat-growing north and the rice-farming south of China. Northerners were more direct and less concerned with social conformity than Southerners, who were more "interdependent, holistic-thinking and fiercely loyal to their friends" attributed to climate differences.
j6R6E TIL Doctors are required to have their appendix removed before being stationed in Antarctica. This is to avoid the repeat of a 1961 situation, when the doctor at a Russian station removed his own appendix with the help of untrained expeditioners.
negWB TIL most maps distort the size of many countries. Greenland and South America tend to look roughly the same size even though South America is 8.2 times larger. Canada is also smaller than the typical representation, and South Africa much larger.
EGE0 TIL: In europe they have “Social Supermarkets” that allow the poor to buy discarded goods from normal supermarkets at very cheap prices.
kDed TIL in 1986 a Soviet sub sank under odd conditions, when they revisited the wreck the missile hatches were forced open, and 2 warheads were reported missing.