› added 2 weeks ago

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TIL that during WWII, the British considered building aircraft carriers out of ice. The project, called Project Habakkuk, aimed to create massive, unsinkable carriers from a special mixture of ice and wood pulp called Pykrete.

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PYGeE TIL the South Pacific island of Niue was named "Savage Island" by Captain James Cook, because the natives he saw were painted in what looked like blood (it was actually hulahula, a native red fe'i banana). That name was used until the original name "Niue", meaning "behold the coconut", regained use
1apPW TIL that in 1973, Marcus Foster, the first black Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District, was murdered by the Symbionese Liberation Army, because they believed he supported the plan to create a student identification card system that would help keep non-student drug-dealers off campus.
8a8OP TIL that the deepest humans have ever dug is 40,603 ft, and it would still take another 60,000 ft just to reach the end of the crust! And another 20 million ft to reach the center of the earth!
x68WB TIL of Cosquer cave art: 27000 y.o. cave art accessible only through 175m long submerged tunnel with entrance 37m below sea level
PYWAg TIL an Eastern Air Lines flight crashed because the entire crew was so occupied with a burnt-out landing gear light that they failed to notice that autopilot had disconnected.