› added 10 years ago

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TIL: M.A.R.A.U.D.E.R was a US weapon able to produce doughnut shaped rings of plasma and balls of lightning that exploded with devastating effects when hitting its target. The project’s initial success led to it becoming classified and no more details of how it developed after 1993 are available

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1aARr TIL The world’s first mobile phone call was made on April 3, 1973, when Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, called a rival telecommunications company and informed them he was speaking via a mobile phone.
9Qe7 TIL that ants ‘farm’ mealybugs. In return for honeydew, the bugs are given shelter in the form of ‘barns’ constructed by the ant ‘farmers’ from bits of soil. Ants will defend their ‘herds’ from predators. Ants ‘milk’ them by stroking the bug’s abdomen, it responds by exuding honeydew.
WkYAA TIL the legend of the Chupacabra is only 22 years old. The name was coined by a comedian, and a five-year study concluded the original description of the monster was based on the creature Sil from the movie Species.
Z8mQo TIL that because beef tallow and lard are unkosher, northern European "Jews turned to poultry fat as their cooking fat of choice; the overfeeding of geese to produce more fat per bird produced modern Europe's first foie gras as a side effect."
E1Zxx TIL in 2002, Kim Jong-il agreed to let Japanese abductees visit Japan. A few weeks later, the Japanese Government "restricted" the abductees from returning to North Korea.