› added 1 year ago

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TIL that in the 1970s, the CIA developed a mechanical dragonfly as a spy gadget, but the project was scrapped because the device was difficult to control in outdoor conditions.

Read more cia.gov

via reddit.com

epBe5 TIL Roman concrete's durability is a result of hot mixing, which creates lime clasts that "self-heal" cracks whenever they are exposed to water.
V19B TIL - The first webcam watched a coffee pot. It allowed researchers at Cambridge to monitor the coffee situation without leaving their desks.
b9PYj TIL...It costs approximately $7.5 million in funding per astronaut per day to be aboard the International Space Station
JYb8m TIL the first thanks giving in America was not celebrated in Plymouth Massachussets, but in Berkeley Hundred, Virginia
R59d9 TIL author Honoré de Balzac, best known for The Human Comedy, wrote a fanfiction sequel to the Gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin