› added 13 years ago

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TIL when Emperor Hirohito broadcast his surrender order to the Japanese people on August 14, 1945, his subjects could not understand the obscure Royal dialect in which he spoke. An Army officer had to follow the Emperor’s statement with a translation.

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6r88 TIL that when Benjamin Franklin died in 1790, he willed the cities of Boston and Philadelphia $4,400 each, but with the stipulation that the money could not be spent for 200 years. By 1990 Boston’s trust was worth over $5 million.
BrRND TIL That Octopus And Squid Possess The Super-Power To Rewrite Their RNA. Researchers say that this type of RNA editing can allow a single octopus gene to produce an array of various proteins from the same DNA.
VMoWG TIL par-cooking sweet potatoes in water between 135 and 170°F (57 and 77°C) activates an enzyme that converts their starch into Maltese. Making them extra sweet
8a0Yb TIL after WW2, the Japanese researchers who experimented on humans to develop bio- and chemical weapons were given immunity by the US in exchange for their data. Victim accounts were then dismissed as communist propaganda. But, Americans found the data "amateurish" and subsequently returned it.
daZ7 TIL India is launching its mass electronic surveillance program in 2014. It will give 9 Indian govt. agencies—incl. the tax dept—the power to access, in real-time, phone conversations, text, emails, web search data & social media activity WITHOUT the approval of the courts or parliament.