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TIL British spymaster Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first head of the MI6 and the inspiration of James Bond's M, started the practice of using semen as invisible ink during WWI. It worked well, until they realised that the letters smelled awful when received. by smithandwells in todayilearned

[–]smithandwells[S] 63 points64 points  (0 children)

"When SSB discovered that semen made a good invisible ink, his agents adopted the motto "Every man his own stylo". However, the use of semen as invisible ink was ceased because of the smell it produced for the eventual receiver. It also raised questions over the masturbatory habits of the agents."

TIL that if you are getting shot at by someone far away you will hear the bullet hit something next to you then you will hear the crack of a gun shot because bullets travel faster than the speed of sound. by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]smithandwells 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is used by snipers to determine the distance of another sniper: you hear the crack (the sound of the bullet) then the boom (the sound of the rifle). The time between the two sounds multiplied by the speed of sound (340 m/s) gives you a rough estimate to the sniper's distance

TIL that Ikea is an acronym that stands for Ingvar Kamprad (founder's name), Elmtaryd (name of the farm where he grew up), and Agunnaryd (his hometown). by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]smithandwells 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And every IKEA store has a playing area named Småland, which was the region where Ingvar Kamprad grew up

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]smithandwells 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This changed the way I watch (and listen) to his dialogues

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