› added 2 years ago

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TIL that during WWII the US Navy executed unrestricted warfare against Japan, the most massive and devastating submarine campaign of all time. The goal was to cut off food to Japanese civilians. This was done without approval from the US government.

mxarE TIL that there is an optical phenomena called Halo that's basically a colorful ring around things like the sun and the moon, and it's caused for an specifically type of cloud with a certain organization of its particles
wo6Y6 TIL that the first recorded separation of conjoined twins took place in the Byzantine Empire in the 900s. One of the twins was already dead, and the other lived for three days after separation. The next recorded separation is several centuries later, in 1689, by Johannes Fatio.
womrM TIL that according to a review in the American Journal of Neuroradiology, by the age of 20 37% of people show spinal disc degeneration on imaging. That figure increases to 80% by age 50 and 96% for age 80+.
xA5b TIL the engineer who designed the Japanese Kamikaze dive-bombing planes of WWII felt bad about his role in the war, so at its end, he decided to use his skills for peace by designing the body of the Shinkansen (Bullet Train), which has, to this day, operated with zero accident-caused fatalities.
VBRap TIL about Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art of repairing pottery using lacquer, as a method of appreciating the imperfections of an object, rather than disguising its damages.