› added 10 years ago

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TIL that the Millenium Bug resulted in 154 incorrect Down Syndrome results being sent to pregnant mothers; two abortions took place.

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D1vLV TIL that in 2016 Belgian cyclist Femke Van den Driessche was discovered to have a hidden motor in her bicycle, the first proven instance of "Mechanical Doping"
WkLrY TIL when the First World War began, it was compulsory for all British officers to have a moustache. Poignantly, that edict was revoked in October 1916, because the new recruits were so young that some could not rustle up more than a thin, mousey streak.
VXp4 TIL Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux during World War II, defied a direct order from his own government and issued transit visas to as many as 30,000 refugees seeking to escape the Nazis
R7ZMw TIL Many German households own a device designed to neatly cut a hole into a soft boiled egg, called an "Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher," literally "eggshell breaking point causer".
okGK Today I learned that Autotune was originally invented for use by geologists