› added 1 year ago

49

TIL of ‘Project Pigeon’, a WW2 era US funded attempt to train pigeons to guide bombs to their targets. The pigeons were put inside of the bombs and acted as pilots, repeatedly pecking the target displayed through a lens to keep the bomb on course to the target.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

ZgGY TIL that more than 900 workers have already died building Qatar’s World Cup infrastructure. The International Trade Union Confederation says that if conditions don’t improve, at least 4,000 migrants will die before kick-off.
XEMaX TIL Kaiser Wilhelm once spanked Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, his cousin, while the Tsar was looking out a window. Because Wilhelm refused to apologize, the Tsar awarded a major arms contract to France instead of Germany.
dgM8 TIL since Paleontologist Jack Horner has dyslexia, he had trouble with reading and writing so his English teacher told him he never wanted to see him again. When Horner published his first book, he sent a copy to his English teacher.
8aJNb TIL The house in Parasite (2019) was not a real house, but a set constructed to Bong Joon Ho' s script and specific camera needs. Lee Ha Jun, who is also the production designer on BJH's earlier film 'Snowpiercer', designed the house from scratch to match the story and blocking requirements.
neLDG TIL that in South Korea, in addition to the international age system, a traditional system known as "Korean age" is still widely used. In Korean age, people's age starts at 1 rather than 0 and gains one year at every New Year's Day.