TIL the "tank" was named by the British military during WWI to make the enemy think they were developing a kind of water carrier instead of a secret new weapon. https://ift.tt/FPrTjJ2

TIL over 30% of the US population lives in four states: California, Texas, Florida, New York. https://ift.tt/yenmRhp

TIL about Grey Owl. A famous indigenous Canadian conservationist during the 1930s. When he died, it was revealed that he wasn't actually First Nations at all - instead he was a British immigrant that was putting on an act. https://ift.tt/TuWrvGy

TIL there are wasps that will paralyze lady bugs with a virus and then put a cocoon of its larvae between the ladybug's legs. The larvae emerge and intentionally only eat non-vital organs/parts. About 25% of the hosts regain control of their body afterwards https://ift.tt/7C0l8Uv

TIL The Myers-Briggs Test Is Absolute Nonsense https://ift.tt/rJexoGN

TIL that, in 1960, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley gave Prince Akihito of Japan bluegill fish to be bred in Japan for food. They escaped captivity and are now an invasive species in Japan. https://ift.tt/wJyK4ef

TIL while the fear that technological unemployment inevitably generates structural unemployment is known as the ‘Luddite Fallacy’, the Luddites themselves were actually put out of their jobs by new tech, and were brutally crushed when they revolted https://ift.tt/78Jjqzb

TIL Measured by its longevity and popularity, the Cessna 172 is the most successful aircraft in history. First produced in 1956, more than 44,000 had been made as of 2015. It holds the world record for the longest manned non-stop flight of 65 days, set in 1959. https://ift.tt/DmxMOYw

TIL that at one point in early 1913, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josep "Tito" Broz, Sigmund Freud, Alban Ferg, Carl Jung, and Ludwig and Paul Wittgenstein were all in Vienna at the exact same time. https://ift.tt/mbHSd9A

TIL JFK experienced chronic back pain. He underwent 4 back operations, including a discectomy, an instrumentation and fusion, and 2 minor surgeries that failed to improve his pain. https://ift.tt/qrlKbUi

TIL that the most powerful supercomputer in the year 2000 (the IBM ASCI White) cost the 2022 equivalent of $189 million and ran at 7.226 teraflops. The 32-Core variant of the Macbook Pro in 2022 costs $3,499 and has a peak performance of 10.4 teraflops. https://ift.tt/jh23CwL

TIL about Odette Sansom Hallowes. An SOE agent during WWII, she was captured by the Gestapo, interrogated, tortured, and sentenced to death twice. She survived the war and was the first woman to be awarded the UK’s George Cross. In 1951 her GC was stolen, but later returned with an apology note. https://ift.tt/KAnzI4O

TIL former NFL player Rosey Grier was a bodyguard for Senator Robert Kennedy’s wife— Ethel Kennedy— the night Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Grier assisted others in subduing Kennedy’s assassin and held the assassin’s pistol in his pocket before passing it to police. https://ift.tt/dcUYGm8

TIL North Korea had a higher GDP per capita than South Korea in 1970 https://ift.tt/HE3XMkP

TIL that scientists in Japan over a decade ago created an odor recorder that could analyze, store, and reproduce smells. https://ift.tt/S8XBo7G

TIL about Archie Karas, a Greek gambler who turned $50 into $40 million in 3 years playing poker in Las Vegas before losing it all https://ift.tt/G7fCUdW

TIL that words which take on completely different meanings when their first letter is capitalised (eg. Turkey the country vs turkey the bird) are called capitonyms https://ift.tt/n4zeRuD

TIL that dire wolves lived 9,500 years ago and were the size of large modern gray wolves, but with larger teeth and stronger biting ability. Their extinction is believed to have been caused by their reliance on megaherbivores as prey, climatic change, and competition from other species. https://ift.tt/BJtrpLm

TIL a 747 is made up of 6,000,000 parts https://ift.tt/Byo6WY0

TIL toilet paper isn’t a standard use item in India. Instead, it’s considered more hygienic to splash yourself with water using your bare hands for cleanup https://ift.tt/tFDxHpZ

TIL there’s a White House fountain in memory of two prominent men who shared a home and died together on the Titanic. https://ift.tt/lQkCymM