› added 8 years ago

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TIL the Milky Way may already be a zombie galaxy, having stopped producing new stars a billion years ago but still moving

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via ift.tt

nWllY TIL that European trucks are rarely sold in the US was due to a 25% retaliatory tariff (aka the "Chicken Tax") on European trucks, which was put into place after European countries got together and imposed tariffs on imported chickens from the US.
WdBX TIL that in 2011, cell service was shut down in San Francisco at four BART stations to prevent protesters from organizing a peaceful demonstration.
Oo4b7 TIL a boucanier was a French hunter in the Caribbean who smoked meat on a wooden frame called a boucane. Boucaniers sold their meat to the corsairs operating around the Caribbean. Eventually the corsairs themselves were referred to as boucaniers, later anglicized as "buccaneers".
pwPA TIL that the Vatican City is named after the hill that it’s built upon, the name of which pre-dates Christianity
6Eb1Z TIL that Michael J Fox was at one time a chain smoker.