› added 4 years ago

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TIL in WW2 the U.S military initially recommended adding armor to areas of aircraft with the most bullet holes. However due to survivorship bias - where people or things that do not make it past a selection process are not factored into a decision - those were places that already had enough armor.

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RRbj TIL: NASA sent pics of Playboy Playmates to the moon.
0w76y TIL Bluejays feathers aren't actually blue! Instead the pigment in their feathers (melanin) is brown and we perseve it as blue. Natures trickery.
grPVW TIL Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church
VMAJp TIL that during WWII, the US government made a propaganda cartoon for the army called Private Snafu, written by Dr. Seuss. One episode was never released because Seuss's script, purely by coincidence, described a fictitious secret weapon very similar to the atomic bombs later dropped on Japan.
eLk4 TIL that 50 years before women were allowed to enroll into medical school, Margaret Ann Bulkley dressed as a man for 56 years to study medicine and become her alter-ego, Dr James Barry. It was only when she died in 1865 that her secret was exposed after 46 years working as an army medical officer.