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TIL about denkiburo - electrified bathtubs found at some Japanese bathhouses

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OGQDg TIL During WWII the US Navy would convert two coal powered paddle-wheel steamships into the USS Wolverine and USS Sable, the only freshwater carriers ever created. Used for training on Lake Michigan, over 17,000 Navy pilots were certified on these vessels over the course of the war.
R7WMQ TIL the QWERTY system emerged as a result of how the first typewriters were being used. Early adopters and beta-testers included telegraph operators who needed to quickly transcribe messages. The operators found the alphabetical arrangement to be confusing and inefficient for translating morse code.
loEP1 TIL that the "pink slime" that sometimes grows in bathrooms isn't a mold, it's actually an airborne bacterium called Serratia marcescens that feeds on soap, hence why it thrives in bathtubs.
klME TIL that East Germany lives on - as a tiny island off Cuba. In 1972, Fidel Castro gifted the island to East Germany. The island was not addressed in the 1990 reunification, and as such is still technically East German territory, even though the nation no longer exists.
1aPd8 TIL of the Lockheed bribery scandals. Starting in the 1950s, officials of Lockheed, the aerospace company, bribed many influential individuals including a Dutch prince, a Japanese mob boss and a Saudi Arabian arms dealer in order to negotiate favourable deals. The bribes were exposed in the 1970s.