› added 11 years ago

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TIL that during World War II in Australia, there was a dog whose hearing was so acute that it could warn airforce personnel of incoming Japanese planes 20 minutes before they arrived, and before they showed up on radar. “Gunner” could also differentiate the sounds of allied and enemy aircraft.

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e06kL TIL one of the few reasons why the film industry is based in California because filmmakers wanted to get away from Thomas Edison, who owned nearly all film-making patents based in New Jersey. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covered Los Angeles County, was known not to enforce patent claims.
E1bD7 TIL that Ray Bradbury said that Fahrenheit 451 is not about government censorship but about social censorship where the people are the culprit.
9wPvD TIL about Thomas Crapper, a late 19th century inventor and plumber who created a huge line of flush toilets and the ballcock of a toilet which is used in toilets today
kOYlg TIL Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest during a speech in 1912. He continued the 90 minute speech anyway and said "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
wL51 TIL Isaac Newton was like Dirty Harry in 17th century London - chasing counterfeiters of the Royal Mint, bribing crooks for info, threatening criminals and their famlies, eventually focusing on his nemesis. And then he burned all his notes to cover his dirty ways of catching crooks.