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TIL about Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands. The islands, which are uninhabited, are among the most remote places on Earth, they can be reached only by sea, which from Australia takes two weeks

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Z8EKR TIL Pardoned convict Thomas Pamphlett was shipwrecked and castaway in the Moreton Bay area, Australia, 1823, & was rescued after several months. But he committed another crime, & was sentenced to 7 years’ transportation to the new penal colony... in Moreton Bay.
LkKOr TIL that in the 1990s, Las Vegas wanted to revitalize its downtown area. There was a plan to build a full scale replica of the USS Enterprise, with a bar and restaurant on top. Casinos were willing to pay for it and the city was onboard; a Paramount executive said no fearing it would be a failure.
BgMKk TIL The first written record of rabies is in the Mesopotamian Codex of Eshnunna (c. 1930 BC), which dictates that the owner of a dog showing symptoms of rabies should take preventive measures against bites. If another person were bitten by a rabid dog and later died, the owner was heavily fined.
W7rPL TIL “First They Came” was written by Martin Niemöller, a German pastor who initially supported Hitler but later opposed him. The poem is a powerful warning about staying silent in the face of injustice and how apathy enables oppression.
J1ab4 TIL Disney World had its own airport that had a runway that featured a set of grooves, like rumble strips on the side of a highway, that played “When You Wish Upon a Star” when driven over at roughly 45 miles per hour to surprise the airplane passengers.