› added 11 years ago

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TIL a man named Gregory W. Nemitz claimed ownership of Asteroid 433 Eros, on which NEAR Shoemaker landed in 2001. His company Orbital Development issued NASA a parking ticket for $20.

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neOyP TIL that Cambodia under the leadership of the communist Khmer Rouge committed a genocide which killed a quarter of Cambodia's 1975 population (c. 7.8 million). Those targeted were Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and people with glasses.
MeRLB TIL that after the American Civil war some 10,000 to 20,000 Confederates fled to Brazil, founding the city of Americana near São Paulo. Today their descendents called "Confederados" have an annual festival marked by Confederate flags, uniforms, hoop skirts, and foods like fried chicken.
1aRv8 TIL that British doctors performed a covert study of the length of time chocolates last on nurses' stations in hospitals, published in the British Medical Journal. They found that the 'decay rate' of the chocolates follows an exponential decay pattern with a half-life of 99 minutes.
j6KZM Today I learned that most indoor swimming pools in the US in the first half of the 20th century required males to swim naked.
JYjOV TIL that some black bears are born white and are called Spirit Bears. They are not albino or polar bears.