› added 2 years ago

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TIL in 1714, a Norwegian captain and an English captain had a 14-hour long ship fight. Afterwards, both ships were badly damaged and the Norwegian captain was running out of ammo. He sent an envoy to the English ship, asking if he could borrow some of their ammo. They said no.

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yQ4Rv TIL That Boeing uses potatoes to test their in-flight Wi-Fi, as they reflect and absorb the signals similarly to people. The project is called Synthetic Personnel Using Dialectic Substitution- or SPUDS.
9wbyp TIL research has found that swearing can reduce the perception of pain (providing a measurable analgesic effect) by as much as 33%. Because swearing is processed in so many different parts of the brain at once, it’s more effective than almost anything else at distracting from pain and discomfort.
MeKm8 TIL of Magnus Carlsen who played against 10 chess grandmasters simultaneously with his back turned to them while verbally being told each person's moves. He beat them all.
grPGX TIL the Ancient Roman Legions, rather than promoting men with orders from senior officers, held elections from within a Contubernium (equivalent to a squad or platoon) to elect a "Decanus," (roughly a corporal or sergeant, in charge of 10 men).
nwlG TIL that the salvation army is not a charity. They are an Evangelical business that spent thousands of dollars of donated money to fight gay rights last year. In fact, lots of donated money goes to promoting their beliefs, not charity.