› added 2 months ago

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TIL warships used to demonstrate peaceful intent by firing their cannons harmlessly out to sea, temporarily disarming them. This tradition eventually evolved into the 21-gun salute.

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OoGOX The sky appears blue for a combination of two reasons. Before white light reaches the Earth's surface, the light waves collide with and bounce off of the nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmosphere. Different frequencies of light (in other words different colours) are scattered differently. Higher frequencies (blue and purple) are more easily scattered and thus bounce around in all different directions more than lower frequencies (red or orange) do. The scattering of high frequencies alone would cause the sky to appear blue and purple, but our eyes work better at frequencies near the middle of the spectrum (yellow and green). Since the colour blue is closer to yellow or green than purple is, the sky we see appears blue.
7r5X TIL the Bedlam asylum was one of most popular tourist attractions of 18th century London. Visitors paid a penny to watch suffering inmates. Entry was free on Tuesdays.
E1RyP TIL- Peter Sagan, 3 time road cycling World Champion once offered a man to swap the jacket that caused Sagan to crash during the race, for a World Champion jersey that Sagan used during the race. The deal fell through as the man demanded money for his journey to Paris and money for a new jacket
69RVJ TIL that you have to oil cutting boards...
9vdp TIL: The President of Uruguay, José Mujica, donates 90% of his monthly salary to charity.