› added 3 months ago

16

TIL the Russian radio telescope RT-70 transmitted a series of 501 messages to the exoplanet Gliese 581c in an attempt to contact an extraterrestrial species. The messages will arrive in 2029.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

BaYe TIL that Charles Dickens grew up during a ‘Little Ice Age’ and hence it snowed for each of his first 8 Christmases influencing his writing and hence today’s tradition of a 'White Christmas’.
J17nB TIL that because giraffes are prey animals and have adapted to survive on less sleep, in uncomfortable positions, and to avoid becoming dinner, they often sleep two to a hammock.
Pwew TIL that halfway between the U.S. and Australia, there is a concrete sarcophagus called the Runit Dome. Essentially an American version of the Chernobyl sarcophagus, constructed to deal with lingering radioactivity within the Enewetak Atoll, site of 111,000 cubic yards of irradiated debris.
OweR TIL in 1998 Bill O'Reilly wrote a novel about a tall, bitter, sexually predatory newsman who gets forced out of his job and starts murdering former colleagues who helped to ruin his career.
e01JL TIL, Red Army had combat camels in its ranks. They were deployed near Astrakhan in the summer of 1942, during the initial phase of the Battle of Stalingrad. More than 300 camels were used to transport goods and artillery in the war, with many being killed and others left in zoos across East Europe