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TIL the United States military when trying to avoid divulging information gives reporters briefings with 25 minutes of intentionally dull PowerPoint presentations and 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone who is still awake. The presentations are called hypnotizing chickens.

9w7DQ TIL that CBS used to add bird songs to their golf broadcasts to eliminate awkward silences. This went unnoticed until a viewer, familiar with the bird songs of the region, realized the sounds were from birds that didn't inhabit the area where the tournament was being held.
VMOmG TIL of Philippa Fawcett, an English mathematician and the first woman to have topped the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos, but who despite scoring 13% higher than the second top scorer did not receive the honorary title of Senior Wrangler.
gr7bW TIL about the Nivelle Offensive a Franco-British operation on the Western Front in the First World War which was named after General Robert Nivelle, the commander-in-chief of the French metropolitan armies, who led the offensive. The failure of the offensive caused the French army to mutiny.
d8OE7 TIL Torakusa Yamaha founded Yamaha in 1887 due to his obsession with western technology and science. After successfully fixing a school’s reed organ, he realized the business opportunity of instrument brand, since at the time there were no Japanese makers of Western instruments
oBymE TIL the Bikini swimsuit was introduced by Louis Réard four days after the first nuclear device was detonated over the Bikini Atoll. Réard hoped that his swimsuit's revealing style would create an "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" similar to the social reaction the nuclear explosion.