› added 1 week ago

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TIL after realizing their tail-warning radars had the opposite effect - attracted luftwaffe to their night raids rather than increase survivability - The RAF decided to abuse this fact to intentionally lure german aircraft into deadly traps using their mosquito night fighters

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j9mn TIL Ringo Starr narrated the first two seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine (Thomas and Friends)!
8a0g8 TIL that German actress Marlene Dietrich was bisexual, and had a romantic involvement with poet Mercedes de Acosta.
5YbpP TIL that the 'Illuminati' conspiracy was dreamt up in Playboy in the 1960s as an experiment to disprove conspiracy thinking. It backfired.
6EXbm TIL in 1995, China set out to return a desert bigger than France back to a flourishing ecosystem after centuries of desertification to combat dust storms, flooding and boost local economy.
Bg7kL TIL that the lightning we see is caused by the electricity heating the air to 30,000°C (54,000°F) and turning it into plasma briefly. The sound of thunder is also caused by the transformation of air to plasma, which makes the air expand incredibly quickly.