› added 1 year ago

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TIL: That during the early part of the Bosnian War, the bobsleigh and luge track used for the 1984 Olympics was transformed into a field artillery position for Bosnian Serb guerillas, the men's alpine skiing venue was a Bosnian Serb military installation and the Zetra Ice Hall was reduced to rubble.

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e0dpk TIL that during the 16th and 17th century the majority of people believed Birds of Paradise lived in the skies and fed only on air and dew.
WkkBX TIL There are still large concrete arrows across the US from the Transcontinental Airway System, which helped pilots prior to radio navigation
VMnJZ TIL The "glass" on your iPhone lens cover is not actually glass. It's pure sapphire which is crystallised aluminium oxide. Which is much more resistant to scratches than glass.
m1jkv TIL about US Navy gunner Loyce Deen. Killed while flying, his body was too mangled to remove from the Avenger torpedo bomber he was in. The ship's crew covered the body and buried Deen at sea, using the Avenger as his coffin. It's the only known burial at sea involving an aircraft as tomb.
v1x5K TIL that physicist Wallace Sabine was assigned the impossible task of fixing the sound quality of a poorly designed lecture hall. Despite having no background in acoustics, he discovered a relationship between chamber size, absorption surface and sound quality. Thus founding the field of acoustics.