› added 9 years ago

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TIL after a wave of plane hijackers demanded passage to Cuba in the 1960s, the FAA considered building a fake Havana airport in Florida. US agents would wait for the plane to land and arrest the unsuspecting hijackers.

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5Yv8Q TIL the default wallpaper for Windows XP is actually a real film photograph taken in California, NOT a photoshopped image. It was hand-delivered by the photographer to Microsoft in Seattle and is considered the most viewed photograph in the world.
ADYKx TIL pine trees scatter their needles across the forest floor to make it easier for fires to burn all of the other trees - pine is fire resistant so it survives.
a97A TIL spiral staircases in medieval times wound in a clockwise direction (from the ascender’s point of view) to place attacking swordsmen (who were most often right-handed) at a disadvantage
9wkWD TIL: Keeping your cell phone in your front pants pocket meaningfully reduces your testosterone and your sperm quality.
b9p47 TIL that when it became apparent that Israel was going to win the 1978 Eurovision Singing Contest, Jordanian TV stopped the live broadcast, showed a picture of daffodils, and later announced that Belgium had won.