› added 5 years ago

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TIL One night, Audra H. fainted and hit her head on a table with only her cat, Shad, at home. Shad dialed 911. The responding officer, who had a hard time believing the cat had learned to call 911, set up his dash cam and Audra simulated a fainting spell. Shad rose to the occasion and made the call.

grdBb TIL an infection model explains why spiral galaxies have spiral arms—the deaths of massive stars trigger star formation elsewhere (infection), while their vicinities recover due to the dispersed material; this propagation/recovery and the galaxy's rotation leads to the spiral structures
yQRvV TIL the 1904 St Louis Olympics was almost entirely an American event. Due to the cost, time and difficulty of travelling to St Louis, 523 of the 630 total athletes were US Citizens.
p8rG4 TIL in 2015 a Chinese woman was stopped at an airport in Beijing for having a bottle of Cognac in her carry-on. Instead of handing it over to airport security, she chugged the entire bottle on the spot before taking her plane.
yQj4X TIL that US Navy periscope operators now use Xbox controllers, as the original control stick was deemed too complicated and a lot more expensive. Xbox controllers are so widely used that the learning time is hugely reduced, and they cost $37,980 less.
JkD1 TIL that the Western Egyptian Siwa Oasis had historical acceptance of male homosexuality and even rituals celebrating same-sex marriage - traditions that modern Egyptian authorities have sought to repress