I Learned Something Today

[Priory_of_Sion]

TIL NBA 2K16 will not let you create a player named "Fidel Castro."

[Collimatrix]

Today I learned that the MG-42 has anti preengagement.

[LostCosmonaut]

Today I learned that the Gemini 2 capsule was the first spacecraft (unless you count the X-15) to make multiple spaceflights.

[Sturgeon]

Yeah, the second time was for MOL, wasn't it?

I believe Gemini 2 currently resides in the Smithsonian in DC. EDIT: LOLNO, that's IV. 2 is at Vandenburg.

[Belesarius]

TIL Roald Dahl was a Fighter Ace in WWII.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl

[Belesarius]

TIL that you can make a pickle glow in the dark.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aab8VjzuXyM&feature=youtu.be

[AdmiralTheisman]

Loans in butter were acceptable in 16th century Europe;

 

European history provides examples of international lending in commodities to add verisimilitude to theoretical discourse. In the 1520s Lubeck made loans to Sweden in kind, that is, in goods, and in the 1550s King Gustav Vasa made loans in both money and goods (Heckscher, 1931 [1953], pp. 213-14). The 1520s loans were repaid, as well as made, in kind, and in consumption goods including, in 1532, butter. A payment due in 1527 was postponed, as it happened, because the food gathered for the purpose in Stockholm was suspected of having become tainted (ibid.).

 

(A Financial History of Western Europe, pg. 260) 

[Vanagandr]

I guess they did it, for all the butter in Småland

[Vanagandr]

The most badass exhibit of the 1900 Paris fair (maybe)

[Walter_Sobchak]

Today I learned that velcro is probably not the best material for seatbelts for a massive waterslide with a creepy German name.  

[Scolopax]

Decapitation seems a little too severe to be called a 'neck injury.'

[T___A]

Today I learned that velcro is probably not the best material for seatbelts for a massive waterslide with a creepy German name.

Anything more secure would be a drowning hazard if the thing landed upside down.

[LostCosmonaut]

Today I learned there were plans for a Mach 3 capable T-38; http://ghostmodeler.blogspot.hr/2012/09/talons-in-space-northrops-n-205-proposal.html

[Priory_of_Sion]

TIL Russia had more planes than cars circa 1914

[Collimatrix]

Depending on the state of the road network, that might have been perfectly sensible.

[T___A]

The Imperial army (and the supporting infrastructure) was in weird transitional phase that had the war started four years later they could've mobilized much more quickly and have comparable equipment to their German counterparts.

[T___A]

That according to Catholic/Orthodox tradition the Virgin Mary only grew to four and half feet.

[Priory_of_Sion]

TIL the CSA had sizable emigration after their defeat to Latin America much like what many Nazis did later. 

[T___A]

TIL that prior to the development of Lilith it was believed that there were two different Eve's.

[ApplesauceBandit]

 

TIL the Steyr AUG was an ugly caterpillar before metamorphosing into a beautiful butterfly.

[Priory_of_Sion]

TIL about Internet Nazis and how they keep retweeting an adult webcam site. 

[Toxn]

TIL that the MiG-9 to the MiG-21 all had issues with fuel tank implosions once the tank got below 40%. Thats... a long time to have such a specific problem in your designs.

[T___A]

TIL locusts are kosher under Jewish dietary laws.

[Walter_Sobchak]

TIL that when he was a young real estate developer, Donald Trump's lawyer was Roy Cohn.  What a gross combination those two must have made.

[Donward]

TIL

 

Jamaicans do in fact make cheese. To the point where a New Jersey teen stole $160,000 worth of the stuff.

 

http://q13fox.com/2016/10/14/teen-accused-of-stealing-160k-worth-of-cheese/

 

And the company which manufacturers the cheese has an unfortunate advertising campaign as illustrated by a Google image search.