› added 11 months ago

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TIL that the diesel engine/fuel source are named after their inventor Rudolph Diesel. More than 95% of today’s ships run on petroleum products, fueling diesel engines which have been optimized for their specific purposes. They ship about 90% of global trade.

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yQbPJ TIL that after the Siege of Weinsberg, a surrender was negotiate in which the women were allowed to leave with whatever they could lift on their shoulders. Instead of carrying their belongings, the women lifted their husbands on their shoulders and headed out of town.
woXe8 TIL in the 1970s, France acted as Saddam Hussein's "chief arms broker"; they sold $25billion in weapons to Iraq of which most was advanced fighters and missiles (close to $100bil in today's money)
p86jN TIL In 2009 a 70cm fish bit 6 tourists in Switzerland, sending 2 to hospital. Police divers harpooned the zander and offered it to the tourists as compensation.
5YwEk TIL The Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II was issued a passport by the modern Egyptian government in order to have his mummified body sent to France for examination, as traveling humans no matter alive or deceased, are required by Egyptian law to have a passport in order to leave the country
6E7OZ TIL- A doctor was reprimanded by the US govt for treating an elderly black man with syphilis because the doctor ruined their experiment. The elderly black man was unwittingly part of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, and the doctor had unknowingly stumbled upon it.