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

TIL about the Saskatoon freezing deaths of Indigenous Canadians https://ift.tt/k4Cv3Th

TIL Delhi, India is the most surveilled city in the world with 1,826.6 CCTV cameras per square mile https://ift.tt/mO269lF

TIL Female Bark lice have spined penises they use to mate with unwilling partners for up to 70 hours https://ift.tt/AHXU7GF

TIL that the Holy Roman Empire was the First Reich https://ift.tt/K59Oxlg

TIL Galileo Ferraris' invention of Induction Motor, as well as the Three-Phase power systems proceeded Telsa's by 8 months. Infact, The inventor of the Modern Induction Motor (Squirrel Cage) and Three-Phase Power Systems Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, attributed Ferraris as his precursor. https://ift.tt/61jZVmp

TIL on 2008, in Douai, France, a bridegroom sued to annul his marriage because the bride wasn't virgin and had lied on the subject. He won in the High Court but lost in appeal https://ift.tt/7eGlCUw

TIL a distant relative of modern dragonflies had a wingspan of about 30 inches https://ift.tt/qUFEoef

TIL that the first commercial plastic, Celluloid, was invented to replace ivory as a material for billiard balls, as elephants were being hunted to near extinction to keep up with the demand. Unfortunately it was so flammable that the balls would sometimes explode on impact. https://ift.tt/MmpTAHY

TIL that not only did Richard Edlund engineer the computerised cameras used in the original Star Wars but he also designed the original Star Trek font, was a highly respected rock photographer AND also invented the Pignose guitar amp. Wow. https://ift.tt/Th9QEyb

TIL that through a combination of using limes instead of lemons, long term storage of the juice, and exposure to copper the scurvy-prevention power of citrus juice was nullified and scurvy saw a resurgence in the arctic and antarctic explorations of the late 1800s and early 1900s https://ift.tt/TiAXH5Y