› added 7 years ago

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TIL apes don't ask questions. While apes can learn sign language and communicate using it, they have never attempted to learn new knowledge by asking humans or other apes. They don't seem to realize that other entities can know things they don't. It's a concept that separates mankind from apes.

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n11b TIL that a chicken farmer sued the US government in 1946 after military planes flew too low over his farm, startling and causing his chickens to kill themselves by flying into the walls. He claimed the government should compensate him because he owned the air above his farm
loYrN TIL that George Orwell fought in the spanish civil war and was shot in the neck. There is now a square in Barcelona named after him called 'Plaça de George Orwell'. Ironically, the square was once one of the most heavily surveillanced places in Spain.
wLm66 TIL that Hindu genealogy registers are kept by the Pandits in Haridwar, India. Some of them stretch across centuries, tracing family history of up to twenty prior generations. These registers are considered sacrosanct and have been used to settle legal disputes relating to inheritance.
YPDB TIL that pitch has a viscosity 230 billion times that of water. There is an experiment at U of Queensland; pitch was allowed to drip in 1930, and since that time only 8 drops have fallen. The last drop fell on 28/11/00, and the next drop is expected to fall this year.
VVaG TIL warming temperatures are making WWI military sites high up in the Alps accessible again, revealing relics and bodies from the “White War.”