› added 2 years ago

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TIL that the US Capitol building due to it being constructed of granite would fail safety levels of radiation for a nuclear power plant if it was built today.

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via reddit.com

J7b1 TIL In a sunset plane ride from NYC to LA, if you flew 850 mph you would cancel Earth’s rotation, freezing the Sun on the horizon
5YKVr TIL of Nancy Wake who ran away from home at 16 with just £200. Her husband was executed by the German and she worked as a nurse, a journalist, a courier & finally a spy for the UK. She is responsible for destroying the Gestapo HQ & was awarded medals by the US, UK, France, among others post-WW2.
VBk6p TIL that the French mass media corporation Vivendi was originally founded in 1853 as a water company by an imperial decree from Emperor Napoleon III
oR9xo TIL of Tomtex, a fake leather made from chitosan, a bio-polymer extracted from waste seafood shells. Unlike other leather alternatives TomTex is not mixed with PVC or polyurethane
0wpkN TIL: When testing underwater acoustics during the cold war in 1960, scientists detonated a series of 300lb bombs off of Perth, Australia. This was heard three and a half hours later 10,000 miles away in Bermuda.