› added 5 years ago

136

TIL of Gunner, a stray Australian dog who, after being wounded in a WW2 air raid, could distinguish so accurately between the sounds of Allied and Japanese planes that he could give 20 mins warning before an air attack. He was taken in by the RAAF and given a role detecting air attacks on Darwin.

Read more aviationhumor.net

via reddit.com

PYE0V TIL a Harvard professor suggested implanting launch codes inside a human volunteer close to their heart so the president would have to kill an innocent person in order to fire nuclear weapons.
VMR7p TIL In 2007, seeds were found frozen below the permafrost. Thought to have been buried by Arctic ground squirrels around 31,500 to 32,300 years ago in the Ice Age. Out of 600,000 seeds, three embryos successfully germinated into plants. Currently the oldest confirmed viable seeds on Earth.
9YLOm TIL a bezoar is a round, solid mass of indigestible material such as calcium and magnesium phosphate that accumulates in your digestive tract. A 2013 review presented 46 patients treated with Coca-Cola for bezoars. A total of 91.3% of patients had complete resolution after treatment with Coca-Cola.
rR7X0 TIL Benjamin Franklin said "In 1736 I lost one of my sons... by the smallpox taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of the parents who omit that operation..."
bgn4 TIL 25 years ago on this day a US guided missile cruiser attacked a civillian Iranian Airliner killing all 290 passengers including 66 children. US government never apologised for this incident.