› added 12 years ago

193

TIL the collective name for ladybirds is a loveliness of ladybirds

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via reddit.com

ne9nd TIL Kevin Mitnick, the most famous computer hacker in the world, spent 8 months of a 5 year prison sentence in solitary confinement because law enforcement convinced a judge he had the ability to "start a nuclear war ... by dialing into the NORAD modem via payphone and whistling codes"
k7JW TIL that Hall of Fame boxer Sugar Ray Robinson backed out of a fight because he had a dream that he was going to kill his opponent in the ring. After a priest and minister convinced Robinson to fight, Robinson went into the ring and killed his opponent, Jimmy Doyle
mrNM TIL that in 1955, a Sears ad accidentally printed a wrong number for their “Santa hotline”. The number rang up a secret military phone at NORAD, meant to be used in case of a Russian attack. Children called the hotline asking for Santa Claus, and the NORAD Santa Tracker was born.
0mo5 TIL The US has had a Native American vice president
DQXYV TIL of Bird Island, a man-made platform off the coast of Namibia that serves as an avian breeding ground for the globally-isolated Cape Cormorant; as well as a renewable source of Guano (bird shit), which is used in fertilizer for it’s high nitrogen content.