› added 11 years ago

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TIL That there was a fire at a Girl’s school in Saudi Arabia which led to the deaths of 15 students because the Religious Police, the Mutaween, would not allow the students to escape because they were not properly covered.

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1LMO TIL there are more bicycles in Copenhagen, Denmark, than people, five times as many bicycles as cars, and 400km of cycle lanes - not shared with cars or pedestrians - for a city of about 600,000 people.
ne0dr TIL of a 1972 CIA project to wiretap enemy phone lines deep within North Vietnam. The helicopter used in the operation, developed at Area 51, was the quietest ever built. In the dead of night, its pilots flew 100-200 feet above North Vietnamese farmers and anti-aircraft guns without being detected.
R50D4 TIL According to the International Journal of Epidemiology and Health, one out of every twenty-five men will raise another man’s child and not know it.
0ww4v TIL a tribe in Australia who speaks the Kuuk Thaayorre language, perceives time as passing east to west (following the sun's path) as opposed to left to right (following the way we read). They also speak of direction in cardinal terms (NESW) instead of ego-centric terms (left, right, front, back).
ANpZ7 TIL "chucking" is an illegal bowling action in the sport of cricket when a bowler straightens the bowling arm when delivering the ball, but after biomechanical testing showed that all bowlers flex their extended arms to some degree, rules were then changed.