› added 10 years ago

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TIL that 19/20th century rural farmers would connect telephones to barbed wire fencing, creating an autonomous, decentralized network

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aworM TIL about the Battle of Jumonville Glen, in which a young George Washington ambushed a French Canadian outpost. This became the opening battle of the French and Indian War.
QJjMe TIL that Tribeca is one of a number of neighborhoods in New York City whose names are syllabic abbreviations, including SoHo (South of Houston Street), Nolita (North of Little Italy), NoMad (North Madison Square) and BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens)
8aK68 TIL Kareem Abdul-Jabber has written Sherlock Holmes novels and an episode of Veronica Mars
4kRJg TIL that Michigan law forbids lawsuits against negligent bosses who caused employees' deaths. For this reason, the family of a mechanic who was killed on the job had to sue the car's owner in order to get compensation from the employer he was killed by (a Jeep dealership).
X9WX TIL Some ducks have been observed floating through tidal rapids or fast-moving sections of rivers, and when they’ve reached the end, they hurry back to the beginning to ride over and over.