› added 8 years ago

69

TIL that the USA had 1,104 shark attacks between 1958-2014; 35 fatal. Australia only had 665 shark attacks during the same time frame, with 232 of them fatal.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

aGYo TIL a Queen’s University Professor was “‘banned’” from his own class and pushed to an early retirement when he used racial slurs while “he was quoting from books and articles on racism,” after complaints were lodged by a TA in Gender Studies and from other students.
aKeN TIL Communists and Socialists who joined the Nazi Party were called ‘Beefsteak Nazis’ and in the 1930’s it was estimated that they made up to 70% of new recruits to the SA paramilitary.
wowYP TIL that Machu Picchu is earthquake resistant. The Incans created an engineering technique called ‘ashlar masonry’, where rocks are cut to fit perfectly together without mortar. This allowed the stones to move in its place during an earthquake, before settling back in their original positions
vrNB TIL that in Hong Kong, architects often design buildings with holes in them to allow dragons to pass through unobstructed on their journey to the ocean.
BgJ4D TIL during the Apollo 13 mission, Jack Swigert realized he had forgotten to file his tax return. NASA contacted the IRS, who agreed that he was considered ‘out of country’ and therefore entitled to a deadline extension.