› added 10 months ago

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TIL over 80,000 Moroccan men, mostly from the Rif region, fought as soldiers for Francisco Franco’s Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. They would be instrumental in the rise of a fascist Spain.

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R5xN9 Today I learned that the actor Keegan-Michael Key had two biological half-siblings (one of whom was comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie) and Key didn't know about either of them until after both of them had died.
kOVpW TIL Electrolysed water will kill spores and many viruses and bacteria and costs less than a penny per gallon. Turns out zapping salt water with low-voltage electricity creates a couple of powerful yet nontoxic cleaning agents.
oByb7 TIL that ever since the first atomic bomb tests, the air is contaminated with enough radioactive particles to make modern steel useless in highly sensitive radiological instruments. Today, only steel made before these tests, such as from sunken warships, can be used to make such devices.
gM5Kb TIL the rainbow grasshopper (Dactylotum bicolor) is native to the United States, Canada and northern Mexico. When threatened, it exhibits aposematism or warning coloration to mimic brightly colored stinkbugs which lizards avoid. Studies show that birds find rainbow grasshoppers to be distasteful.
wnw8 TIL in its 44-year history, “Sesame Street” has won 153 Emmys and 8 Grammys. An estimated 77 million Americans watched the show as children, and 120 million people watch its various international versions.