› added 4 years ago

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TIL that according to an MI5 agent who infiltrated the Provisional IRA, Irish Republican chiefs couldn’t bring themselves to attack targets in Scotland during the Troubles because they viewed them as “Celtic cousins”

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ax8N TIL of the Blood Bikes, a network of UK organisations that consist of volunteer bikers who transport donated blood, breastmilk and organs quickly between hospitals
GADKj TIL in 1951, Dr. W Grey Walter built a "tortoise" robot that can detect and move around obstacles and "see" by going towards or away from bright light, and return to its charging station when the battery charge is low.
EgrnW TIL the movie Footloose is based on a real event. Elmore City, Oklahoma banned dancing in 1898 and kept the law until a group of high school students protested during the 1979-1980 school year. The Town Council voted to repeal the law 3-2 and the school students were allowed to hold a prom.
QNd0k TIL that in 1948 comedy writers at the BBC were forbidden to make jokes about lavatories and effeminacy in men or make suggestive references to honeymoon couples, chambermaids, fig leaves, prostitution, ladies' underwear, animal habits (e.g. rabbits), lodgers, and commercial travellers.
Z8JWD TIL Police almost arrested Gary Ridgeway, The Green River killer, years earlier, in 1983. A boyfriend of a victim had seen her get into his truck before she vanished. The next day, he went with her father and found it; it belonged to Ridgeway. The tip wasn’t enough to get police to arrest him.