› added 8 years ago

105

TIL that in the 1960’s, for fear of having their submarine communication cables cut by the Soviets, the US military sent 480,000,000 copper needles into space to secure their communications infrastructure. The needles acted as a mirror for radio waves, enabling communication between distant sites.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

69Lw TIL Baileys uses 10% of Ireland’s annual cream production (X-post from r/ireland)
WkAGd TIL in 2014 a Scottish woman went to the hospital after contracting sepsis and doctors found a five-inch long dildo that had been lodged in her vagina for 10 years!
gM8Gy TIL American accents are more homogeneous than British accents. There are fewer distinct dialects in the US than in the UK
MX0 TIL that Google has started a beta in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Thailand and Uganda called ‘Google trader’ where locals can contact sellers of anything from chicken egg incubators to entire houses.
nexOo TIL of Phineas Gage, a man who had a large metal rod go completely through his head and destroy his brain’s left frontal lobe. Miraculously he survived, and was able to recover his social skills over time although people noted changes to his personality, behavior, and memory.