› added 10 months ago

24

TIL: North Korea had a covert cargo ship named the Chong Chon Gang, which was a front to conduct illicit activities around the world such as smuggling. It was chased by pirates in 2009, detained by Ukraine and Egypt in 2010, and seized by Panama in 2013. The NK gov paid $700k to release it.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

epjXg Today I learned that there was a fire in one of Titanic's coal rooms prior to the departure from Europe to MY. Titanic had an active smoldering coals the entire voyage.
1AbO TIL the world’s most extreme toilet is located in Siberia at the edge of a cliff, 2,600m (over 8,500 feet) above sea level.
awp7y TIL 1 sperm has 37.5MB of DNA information in it. That means a normal ejaculation represents a data transfer of 1587GB in about 3 seconds
x65Kw TIL Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, was an avid fisherman in his retirement. When President Eisenhower, who considered him the most instrumental Allied leader in Hitler's defeat, learned this he had him sent a set of fishing tackle. Zhukov used it exclusively, for the rest of his life.
vg6L TIL that in 1976, a Soviet pilot defected to Japan in his advanced MiG-25 fighter, which Russia demanded be returned. Japan complied, but only after allowing American engineers to examine the aircraft. Japan then shipped it back piece by piece, and billed Russia $40,000 in transport and labor costs.