› added 4 years ago

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TIL about "Sundown Towns" where specific ordinances and posted signs in counties, cities, and suburbs restricted black people out at night. This is why many neighborhoods are still very racially segregated today.

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M7AXa TIL about Lake Vostok, an Antarctic subglacial lake kept liquid at -3 degrees Celsius due to the sheer pressure of the 4000 meters thick ice sheet above it. Having been isolated for around 25 million years, the lake is said to hold clues about potential extraterrestial life on the icy moon Europa
Brp5r TIL the eggs in Alien initially had a more vaginal appearance complete with an "inner and outer vulva". Producers worried that Catholic countries would ban the film, so Giger changed them so that "seen from above, they would form the cross that people in Catholic countries are so fond of looking at"
NL5Q TIL Turkey Vultures were used by natural gas companies to pinpoint pipeline leaks. Natural gas is odorless, so gas companies add the chemical ethyl mercaptan so that people can smell gas leaks. Ethyl mercaptan is emitted by putrefying animal carcasses. So leaks in gas pipelines attract vultures.
VMd9Z TIL the English horn is not english at all. Its name comes from a mistranslation "cor angle", which means "angled horn" in French, heard instead as "cor anglais."
jNdyN TIL Despite not smoking adventurer Levison Wood always carries a pack of cigarettes with him on his travels as he says handing them out can help diffuse hostile situations.