› added 2 years ago

59

TIL of Viktor Belenko, the Soviet pilot who defected with the MiG-25 (most advanced Soviet interceptor of its time), who initially assumed that his CIA handlers were keeping him in an elaborate tourist trap made to impress foreigners because he couldn't comprehend the sheer abundance he was seeing.

Read more archive.macleans.ca

via reddit.com

E1lV7 TIL that after Attila the Hun died, his soldiers plucked out the hair of their heads and made their faces hideous with deep wounds, so that the great warrior should not be mourned by effeminate wailings and tears, but by the blood of men
Yy5G TIL: The first new antibiotic (Teixobactin) in 30 years has been discovered. This discovery could pave the way for a new generation of antibiotics because of the way it was discovered using an electronic chip to grow the microbes from the soil and then isolating their antibiotic chemical compounds.
R7xvl TIL Earths relationship with the Moon is bound unbelievably to the golden ratio. If Earths radius = 1 and the moon equals 0.272 that makes 1.272 (square root of phi). Draw a triangle with one line at a value of 1 and the second at a value of 1.272 and then hypotenuse (third line) is 1.618 or phi
Bg8jD TIL that Eddie Murphy, Nicholas Cage, David Copperfield, Johnny Depp, Faith Hill & Tim McGraw own private islands in the Bahamas.
jXNv TIL British Royal Navy pilot Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown holds the world record for most aircraft carrier landings - 2,407. The US Navy gave one man the specific job of breaking the record. He got up to 1,600 and then had a nervous breakdown.