› added 10 years ago

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TIL that in the last 7 years, humanity has discovered 43 potentially habitable planets.

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Egknw TIL that there are three summers. Today marks the start Astronomical Summer (from summer solstice to autumnal equinox). There is also Meteorological Summer (June, July and August) and Solar Summer (the solstice is the mid point so summer started 45 days ago).
R5804 TIL that I've been calling everything an ACRONYM when in fact they could instead be an INITIALISM. An acronym can be spoken like a word e.g. FIFA, NASA, RAM, where as an initialism cannot be easily spoken as a word e.g. FBI, CIA, UFO, HSBC, and are instead pronounced letter by letter.
Qw6E TIL 95 percent of those of European origin can trace their maternal roots to one of seven women who lived between 10,000 and 45,000 years ago.
W7yON TIL Pelagic birds can drink seawater: glands beneath their eyes draw out excess sodium and secrete a highly concentrated salt solution through the nose
xVKy0 TIL About Dr Gisella Perl, an inmate and female doctor at Auschwitz. She was instructed to tell Joseph Mengele of any pregnant women, so that he could experiment on them. Instead, she tried to save as many lives as possible by terminating pregnancies, and doing late stage births, without any drugs.