› added 11 years ago

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TIL Sunflowers can be used to clean up radioactive waste (they are able to extract pollutants, including radioactive metal contaminants, through their roots and store them in the stems and leaves. Making them the international symbol of nuclear disarmament).

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Y5Ev TIL That during WWII, a research program tried to train pigeons to guide missiles. Pigeons would follow the image, pecking at it, which would move the screen on its pivots. The program was shutdown, with the lead researcher stating:“Our problem was no one would take us seriously.”
nyyW TIL that when curry was introduced into Japan it was considered a British dish, not an Indian one, because of its popularity among British sailors.
wop97 TIL the 1st jet airliner passed extreme tests yet broke up in normal flight b/c the tests actually made it stronger. A 2x overpressure test on the prototype Comet strengthened it through "cold-working," making it last longer. Production Comets, lacking stress testing, wore out much faster.
g554 TIL that 54% of the troops who landed in Normandy on D-Day were British & Canadian
r6Gx TIL the International Space Station runs Linux as an operating system and has had it’s computers infected with viruses more than once. It is also travelling at 5 miles per second and orbits Earth every 92 minutes.