› added 5 months ago

18

TIL that the Tower of B*bel was built to avoid a second fl**d by humans who all spoke a single language. As a result, they were punished by being scattered and made to speak different languages, so they could no longer understand each other

yVOr8 TIL the British had a secret WW2 plan called Operation Tracer to leave behind an observation post if the Germans captured Gibraltar. Six men were to be sealed inside a hidden chamber to observer the harbor and Strait of Gibraltar. They would have had 7 years of supplies and bicycle-powered radios.
lo4AV TIL during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russians made a small "mouse" hole into a secure anti-doping lab and exchanged "clean" urine samples for those showing their athletes' PED use. Over 100 dirty samples were smuggled out by a Russian agent pretending to be a sewer engineer.
7rEBr TIL in 2017 Kellogg's was forced to apologize after illustrating Corn Pops box with light-colored pops having fun at the mall while a dark-colored pop scrubbed the floor as a janitor
OoaAg TIL that in languages where spelling is highly phonetic (e.g. Italian) often lack an equivalent verb for "to spell". To clarify, one will often ask "how is it written?" and the response will be a careful pronunciation of the word, since this is sufficient to spell it.
akdA TIL only 10 copies of the fastest lens in history (Carl Zeiss 50mm/0.7) were ever made: one was kept by Carl Zeiss, six were sold to NASA, and three were sold to Stanley Kubrick