› added 9 months ago

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TIL that the Russian Soyuz rocket, which has been in service since 1963 and has a success rate of 98%, begins its ignition process by firing wooden sticks inside the combustion chamber. While not quite as simple, it's essentially huge wooden matches and it's extremely reliable.

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16ZoV TIL: A scientific paper examined data from Italian criminal records and found that the quality of Mafia accountants are some of the best in their professions and has detailed and meticulous financial statements. They and their firms also suffered no reputation loss for working with the Mafia.
kxDe TIL that in 2013 a UK company perfected the “tomtato” - a plant that grows potatoes under the soil and tomatoes above.
M715a TIL that despite its cultural presence as the doomsday scenario, current models and estimates believe that a nuclear winter is not a realistic outcome following a nuclear war. One analysis said so many successive things would need to go wrong it was akin to a coin landing on heads 40 times straight
oRkyE TIL The newly independent nation of Zambia launched a space program in the 1960's. 13 people were chosen for space training which included tasks like swinging on a swing and rolling down a hill inside an oil drum. The program ended when the only female trainee got pregnant by another trainee
GAAlg TIL about the Lady Juliana (1777 ship), a ship chartered to transport a load of all-female prisoners to Australia, which quickly developed a reputation as a floating brothel: "when we were fairly out to sea, every man on board took a wife from among the convicts, they nothing loath."