› added 13 years ago

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TIL that in 2007 the Taliban used GPS data from photos uploaded to Facebook from soldiers to locate and destroy 4 Apache gunship helicopters.

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RDwj TIL that France gives a medal to citizens who have “successfully raised several children with dignity.”
XEr76 TIL the "Pac-Man defense" is when a company being bought out in a hostile takeover counterattacks by trying to buy out the aggressor.
vPRQR TIL On Sept 1st 1857 New York had a parade to celebrate the first transatlantic telegraph cable. The project took four years to complete and the line failed later that month. It was not until 1866 when communications reopened after the third line was laid (the second line snapped at sea).
1aRbW TIL Zoroastrian funerals involve a ritual called sagdid (dog-sight). A dog was brought in before the body. If the dog stares steadily at the body, the person is still alive. If it doesn't look at the body, death is confirmed. This was useful in ensuring that a coma was not being mistaken for death.
M71x7 TIL some bacteria evolved a needle-like structure for injecting other cells with special proteins. Type III secretion system , as it is called, is still poorly understood and we don't fully know how bacteria make them and how the needle itself works.