› added 3 years ago

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TIL about Hoshizuna no Hama ('Star Sand Beach') on the Japanese island of Taketomi-jima, where the grains of sand are shaped like tiny stars. They're actually exoskeletons of tiny one-celled organisms called 'Baclogypsina sphaerulata'

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YpKpx TIL that the Ebola pandemic that killed more than 2,200 people could have been prevented if it weren’t for paywalls, given that an article published in a subscription-only journal in 1982 had warned of the risk.
VM9dD TIL George A. Romero, legendary horror director of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, got his start directing short films for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
gMKxy TIL that British politician Tony Benn met his wife in Oxford in 1949. 9 days later, he proposed to her on a park bench. Later, he bought the bench from Oxford City Council and installed it in the garden of their home. They were together for 51 years.
VMJlG TIL the Catholic Church has a zero-tolerance policy on revealing confessions. If a Catholic priest reveals anything someone confessed to him, he is automatically excommunicated and can only be forgiven by the Pope.
ZZDp TIL when his Mercury space capsule lost power, Astronaut Gordon Cooper used a only a wristwatch, his knowledge of star patterns, and math estimations to correct the pitch for Earth re-entry