› added 6 years ago

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TIL about Saadat Shahr, a small rural community in Iran nicknamed ‘Astronomy Town’ because of the residents’ passion for stargazing. The town clubbed together to pay for an observatory and on special occasions all the lights are cut to improve the view of the night sky.

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Zbbv TIL that Carrie Fisher regularly got high on cocaine on set of The Empire Strikes Back, it got so bad that even John Belushi told her she had a problem.
5VyLR TIl That Burma Dictator Ne Win announced the demonetisation of the 25, 35, and 75 kyat notes, leaving only the 1, 5, and 10 kyat bills valid and replaced them with 45 and 90 bills, wiping out 60-80% of legal tender and peoples savings.
69Wx7 TIL Between 2002 and 2010 poachers killed 4,000 elephants, 95% of the population in Chad's Zakouma’s National Park. Now elephants and wildlife are flourishing there again after Chad invited a non-profit organization to help restore and manage it
y8dv TIL that there’s a guy that’s a writer, programmer, war correspondent, photographer, boxer, flying trapeze, ultramarathon runner and broadcaster with fellowships of National Geographic… and he invented the word “podcast”.
a8YKA TIL that in the 1860s when the US was in Civil War, the French Emperir Napoleon III tried to place an Emperor in Mexico. After th US Civil War ended, members of the conservative Confederacy went into Mexico to support the Emperor while the rest of the US supplied arms to the liberal resistance.