› added 6 years ago

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TIL in 2015 scientist dropped a microphone 6 miles down into the Mariana Trench, the results where a surprise, instead of quiet, they heard sounds of earthquakes, ships, the distinct moans of baleen whales and the overwhelming clamor of a category 4 typhoon that just happened to pass overhead.

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via reddit.com

woOJ7 TIL: In 1947, after the Italian bomber corps was disbanded post-WWII, some planes of ambiguous purpose were transferred, pending status clarity, to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the sovereign successors of the Knights Hospitaller of Crusader fame. The planes were later returned to Italy.
kr0e TIL There is a pistol that fires the same round used in the Barrett .50Cal BMG Sniper Rifle used by special forces snipers, and it looks like something from Star Wars! (video in comments)
EgyEd TIL humans ability to digest milk and other dairy products and survive on a vegetable-heavy diet only emerged about 6,000 years ago. Before that, they were meat-eaters.
5Vrxk TIL about the "boiling frog", an apologue describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly.
y0np TIL in 1986, at the height of apartheid, Glasgow, Scotland changed the name of the square where the South African consulate-general was based to Nelson Mandela Place, forcing the South African attaché to have to write this address if they wanted to receive mail.