› added 12 years ago

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TIL US men work on average a half hour longer then women per day

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781Wr TIL bootlegger Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton killed himself rather than report to federal prison after being convicted of moonshining offences. He prepared his grave footstone years in advance and had it by his front porch and kept his casket in his living room. The epitaph read, "Popcorn Said Fuck You."
9l0M TIL that, after Harry Houdini piloted the first airplane over the skies of Australia, he proclaimed that the world may forget his performances as an escape artist, but they would never forget he was the first person to fly a plane in Australia.
xyr5 TIL that a LEGO brick can withstand 950 pounds of force before breaking.
evrL TIL the myth that carrots improve night vision was started on purpose in WII as an explanation for why german planes kept getting shot down at night. In reality, radar had just been invented.
EbXW TIL that a Korean airlines accidentally strayed into Soviet Airspace, leading to the plane being shot down. To prevent such a tragedy, US President Ronald Reagan declassified a critical military tech and that is how we got GPS for civilian use.