› added 12 years ago

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TIL there are 550,000 miles of flexible undersea cables that carry the world’s data. Both USA and UK government agencies tap directly into it

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loAl5 TIL William Burroughs shot and killed his wife in Mexico city. He spend 13 days in jail as his brother was bribing mexican officials in order to let him off the hook and delay the trial until he managed to flee back to the US. The incident is what sparked his career as a writer
167oD TIL Florida Natural orange juice is no longer "Not from concentrate"
jKmQ TIL it is legal for women to be publicly topless in 33 states. Male toplessness became legal in 1936.
ne87b TIL about PS General Slocum, a passenger steamboat that burned and sank into the East River in 1904. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 passengers died, the largest loss of life in terms of disaster in NYC until 9/11.
xDrb TIL a cat named Tibbles once started bringing dead birds to a lighthouse that were discovered to be a new species, the Stephens Island wren. They went extinct shortly after and Tibbles the cat was accused of being the only single living creature to eradicate a species.