› added 10 years ago

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TIL Alberta, Canada has been virtually rat free for decades. The provincial government has maintained a successful rat extermination program since shortly after World War II.

EgRnP TIL about the Dabous Giraffes petroglyphs, neolithic petroglyphs on the western side of the Aïr Mountains in north-central Niger. The carvings are 6 metres (20 ft) in height and consist of two giraffes carved between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago into the Dabous Rock with a great amount of details.
Y71eW TIL the man who supposedly fired the first shot of the Civil War later committed suicide (his body wrapped in a Confederate flag) rather than submitting to "Yankee rule."
6Endl TIL that prior to the development of modern guns, soldiers needed to use their teeth to open cartridges, so militaries introduced requirements about the minimum number of the teeth of their soldiers. In some cases soldiers would pull or damage their teeth in order to avoid military conscription.
9wWvM TIL Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and a myriad of other recognizable characters, fell into a coma for two weeks after a car accident. After many unsuccessful attempts at waking him, one doctor finally said, “Bugs, can you hear me?”, to which Mel responded, "Yeah, what's up doc?" in character.
v4JK TIL that Michael Eakin, a PA court justice, has been criticized for writing his opinions as poems, such as “A deal is a deal, if fairly undertaken/and we find disclosure was fair and unshaken.” He believes that “You have an obligation as a judge to be right, but you have no obligation to be dull.”