› added 2 years ago

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TIL the Swedish military goes by mission command rather than chain of command. Meaning orders & rules can be ignored if they interfere with objectives. This led to some friction in Bosnia as Nordbat 2 would ignore UNs rules of engagement to obtain the primary objective of preserving civilian lives.

eJGn TIL that during the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope, a chip of paint flecked off a measuring rod and began giving off false readings. The mirror ended up being 4 microns off, resulting in billions of dollars worth of repair efforts.
pYEpb TIL that in the 1980s, A&W launched their third-pounder burger to compete with the quarter-pounder. Confused about low sales, they conducted a study and found that around half the participants thought a third was smaller than a quarter. The burger was rebranded to the "papa burger."
7wPx TIL Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden, died of digestion problems in 1771 after eating a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring, champagne, and 14 servings of his favorite dessert, semla in a bowl of hot milk. He is remembered by schoolchildren as “the king who ate himself to death.”
gY09 TIL of Robert Smalls, a seaman-slave during the American Civil War who stole a warship when the Confederate sailors went whoring and sailed himself and his family to freedom. Then fought for the Union. Then became a successful businessman and bought his former masters house.
5roB TIL: The “Fi” in “Wi-Fi” doesn’t stand for anything, it’s a play on words of “Hi-Fi”