› added 4 years ago

181

TIL A future Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force decided to become an aviation engineer when as a boy admired the American planes dropping sweets to him and other kids during the Berlin Airlift. Dr. Yarymovych is also credited for initiation of the Global Positioning System - GPS

Read more airspacemag.com

via reddit.com

gJD8 TIL the Christian God ordered an invading army to kill the women of Samaria, cut their fetuses out of their wombs, and to dismember their babies by repeatedly bashing them over stones
Bo6e TIL that the introvert’s brain treats interactions with people at the same intensity level that it treats encounters with inanimate objects.
PYaNV TIL about Slugging, a practice where commuters driving into big cities will pick up fellow random commuters in order to take advantage of faster carpool lanes. No money is exchanged, and as many as 9,000 people in some US cities will Slug in a given day.
rvQM TIL that “Chinese” is not just “Mandarin” and “Cantonese”, but at least 7 distinct language groups, or hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible
jNpBj TIL a reverend of the Freedom Church of Revelation asked the Vice Chancellor of Delaware for permission to settle a lawsuit with a "trial by combat to death." The Vice Chancellor rejected this request. This happened in 1983.