› added 7 months ago

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TIL that US military pilots, after being certified to carry nuclear bombs, were issued an eye patch so that, in the event of a full-scale nuclear war, if they were blinded by a nuclear detonation they would be able to remove the eye patch and still see.

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grY77 TIL that Tommy’s character in O’Brother Where art Thou was based on a real man who actually “borrowed” the story from another blues singer, Robert Johnson.
GXR7 TIL that when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, Niels Bohr had his colleagues’ Nobel medals dissolved in acid. They were stored on a shelf until after the war, when the gold was precipitated and the medals re-struck by the Nobel Foundation.
5Yn49 TIL Houston officials let developers build thousands of homes inside reservoirs. Nobody told homebuyers that the reservoirs were designed to flood during major rainstorms until Hurricane Harvey happened.
OoXVa TIL that alcohol is the most dangerous drug to withdrawal from, that hundreds die every year attempting to quit cold-turkey, and that despite this, Alcoholics Anonymous actively discourages people from using any kind of medical intervention.
5V0rB TIL a fish-powered boat goes 1mph