› added 8 years ago

263

TIL that “Make feet for children’s stockings” was once a euphamism for sex.

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Yp9yZ TIL China is banned from the International Space Station partly because of a fear that Chinese taikonauts will hack sensitive NASA equipment if allowed on-board.
8eXNZ TIL that the Tab ↹ Key on a keyboard is actually short for Tabulator Key or Tabular Key.
1ebP TIL those really thin fridge magnets are a special type of magnet called a Halbach array that has almost no magnetic field on one side - these were originally designed for use in particle accelerators.
oRDAL TIL that in 1864, a war was fought over bat poop. In the Chincha Islands War, Spain fought with Peru over control of a group of islands covered in bat poop up to 100 feet thick. Guano, when dried, was used as the one of the main ingredients of saltpeter, an early important component of gunpowder.
NXpkP TIL An estimated 10 to 15 percent of abducted Africans died on their way to the coast from the interior during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Historians also estimate that between 15 and 25 percent of the enslaved Africans bound for the Americas died aboard slave ships.