› added 13 years ago

265

TIL the mantis shrimp punches its prey with more force than a .22-caliber bullet.

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DQx9e TIL; Before leaving the Titanic, a second officer forgot to hand over a key to the locker - which housed the ships' binoculars. The lookouts that night later said, if they had binoculars, they would have avoided the iceberg.
VBl8Q TIL: The world's coldest marathon was held in Yakutia, Siberia. 2022's winner ran it in 3h 22m; the temperature was -53°C
lx7r TIL The Times’s description of a Peter Ustinov documentary stated “highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector”. This quote is used to support use of the serial (Oxford) comma.
BgvAy TIL that in 1980, Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore warned Australia it was on track to become the ‘poor white trash of Asia’ if it didn’t open up its economy. Australia did open its economy, thrived, and has very close and friendly relations with Singapore.
j6eJR TIL that after the Italian surrender during WWII, 90% of US captured Italian POWs joined what are known as Italian Service Units. While still technically prisoners, they donned the American Army uniform and assisted with Allied war efforts through streamline war manufacturing and logistical support.