› added 9 years ago

268

TIL there are less blimp pilots in the world than astronauts

Read more washingtonpost.com

via reddit.com

QN9yX TIL that during a dogfight, Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter plane. When the pilot parachuted onto the land, he asked a local boy whether he was in India or Pakistan. The boy replied that he was in India, so the pilot started chanting for India, at which point he was caught by Pakistani official
DjYj TIL that in 1944 a black teenager named George Stinney was accused of murdering two white girls on flimsy evidence, he was tried without legal representation with an all-white jury, and he was executed by electric chair at the age of 14
VMEgk TIL over a century ago, poultry producers would pamper their flocks as winter approached to encourage hens to continue laying eggs. Today, the industry instead uses a technique of starving hens for 1-2 weeks. The practice is banned in the EU as inhumane, but is widely used in the US.
ep5E4 TIL that bottlenose dolphins are one of the few species, along with apes and humans, that have the ability to recognise themselves in a mirror, this is considered a mark of great intelligence and self awareness. Moreover, dolphins are among the few animals that have been documented using tools.
MemP8 TIL Female mummies in Ancient Egypt were always more decomposed than their male counterparts. They discovered that this was because male bodies were embalmed a lot sooner than female bodies. Female bodies were kept at the family home until they started to decompose in order to avoid necrophilia.