Things I didn’t know (a continuing series)

Best Defense is on summer hiatus. During this restful spell we offer re-runs from the past 12 months. This item originally ran on Mar. 15. 

— The French had four times as many dead (95,000) in the Crimean War as the British did (22,000).

— Huge bursts of energy are coming from what an astronomer calls a “very puny and faint galaxy.”

— The Pentagon oddly enough had different rules for Department of Defense civilians and soldiers returning from dealing with the West African Ebola outbreak. If your copy of the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of Military Medicine hasn’t arrived yet, this is what it says: “The DoD’s 21-day quarantine policy for military personnel returning from West Africa53 was among the strictest government quarantines. Interestingly, a similar quarantine period was not mandated for DoD civilians returning to the United States from West Africa Ebola intervention missions.”

— Something I don’t understand: Why did Turkey enter World War I on the side of the Germans? Was it because it thought Germany would win, and then it could pick up pieces of the French and British empires?

— French military officers were banned from voting from 1872 until after World War II.

— The Russian navy has land-based strike aircraft, which in fact are “the real ‘teeth’ of Russian naval aviation,” according to an article in the March issue of Proceedings.

— Speaking of things Russian, the U.S. Army last year bought almost 70 million rounds of ammunition for the AK-47 rile and the PKM machine gun, reports the March issue of ARMY magazine.

— New category — Something I wish I didn’t know: When someone triggers a suicide vest, the head of the bomber often pops up high in the air, and is sometimes found on the roof of a neighboring building.

Photo credit: KEVIN FRAYER/Getty Images