› added 11 years ago

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TIL that, on a goodwill visit to China, astronaut Jack Lousma showed a slide of “a beautiful, emerald-colored lake” he’d taken on the Shuttle, and got a surprising reaction. His interpreter explained later that it may have been a secret nuclear test site.

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via reddit.com

VbWD TIL when negotiating with Americans in the 1850’s, the Japanese leader inflated his title from Shogun (meaning “general of the army”) to Taikun (meaning “great prince/lord”). The title then entered the English language as “Tycoon,” and was adopted as a nickname for Abraham Lincoln by his staff
xV9PD TIL In 1995 a man from australia committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a shotgun. He then shot himself in the head with a pistol. When both failed he used the shotgun and shot his throat and jaw. Finally he walked two hundred metres & shot himself in the heart
XE6jR TIL in the card game Arboretum, tie-breakers are decided by players each planting a tree, coming back in 5 years, and seeing which one grew the tallest.
e0NjJ TIL: Supernova remnants can still be visible 40,000 years after stars explode
bKjp TIL that in 1830, a group of Australian convicts hijacked a ship off the coast of Tasmania and sailed it to isolationist Japan. At a port on Shikoku Island, a samurai disguised as a fisherman recalled walking the docks, when they noted “an unbearable stench in the vicinity of the ship.”