› added 9 years ago

102

TIL a professor proposed a policy of automatic retaliation that would serve to end rocket attacks on Israel. If a rocket was fired at Israel an automated missile would fire at a arbitrary spot in Gaza without human input, meaning if militants rocketed Israel they would also be rocketing themselves.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

ADw6B TIL that in 2013, a truck hauling Cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope of cobalt often used in cancer treatment, was hijacked by thieves who were unaware of the truck's contents. The truck was found abandoned 2 days later in a cornfield near Mexico City, with the cobalt outside of its protective casing.
QNV0L TIL In 2003, the All-England Lawn Tennis Club (organizers of Wimbledon) began paying $2M annually for pandemic insurance, which it did for 17 years. In 2020, Wimbledon was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Club collected a $141M payout.
ny77 TIL during WW2, when the Russians retreated they usually destroyed most buildings suitable for command posts. However, they would often leave some large buildings intact, but only after lining the buildings with time bombs set to explode weeks later - to destroy entire German headquarters at once
J1694 TIL Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom maintain territorial claims in Antarctica, but the United States and most other countries do not recognize those claims.
ADyr7 TIL world's last Stone Age society exists on North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean, and they are identified for protecting their island upon all visitors. Because they have been living in isolation for 60,000 years, there is genetically a direct path between them and their pre-Neolithic ancestor