› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Geoffrey Tandy, a cryptogamist (algae specialist) who was mistakenly hired by Bletchley Park, significantly contributed to breaking the Enigma cipher, utilising his expertise to preserve otherwise unsalvageable codebooks from a torpedoed U-boat

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xVMBB TIL: the world's first HD 6DoF video (VR video where you can walk around like in a game) was sized at 3GB per frame. 10 minutes of video would be 1800GB.
OGn04 TIL that in ancient Lydia, it was common practice for most young commoner women to become prostitutes to raise enough money for a marriage dowry
b86p TIL Theodore Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt, was shot in the chest, and proceeded to deliver a 90 minute speech. He opened with: “Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
9YjnM TIL about Tunnel Boom. Compression waves are generated in front of the high-speed train upon entering a tunnel. These compression waves subsequently coalesce into a weak shock wave so that a unpleasant sonic boom is emitted from the tunnel exit.
DQdjY TIL that Matthias Erzberger, who helped negotiate the armistice that ended the First World War, was assassinated at a spa in 1921 by former members of the Imperial German Navy,