› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of the Chairman of Scientology, David Miscavige, first learned about the story of Xenu from watching the “Trapped in the Closet” episode of South Park.

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6E59W TIL that the International Morse code distress signal <SOS> does not stand for anything. It was adopted due to being easy to remember and broadcast even for people unfamiliar with Morse code, being a continuous sequence of three dots, three dashses, and three dots, with no spaces.
W7eW8 TIL screwworm, a nasty parasite that can kill hosts used to be common in southern USA and Mexico. Program in place for several decades have virtually eliminated all screwworm all the way to Panama/Colombia border
ePYb TIL fleeing the Japanese in WWII Burma, a group of refugees spent two days carving a 270-foot staircase into a mountain so that they and 52 elephants could escape
j64Mp TIL that 43 species of termites are used as food by humans and food for livestock.
KDPQ TIL in 1938 the Muslim King Zog of Albania opened Albania’s borders to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. King Zog reputedly survived 55 assassination attempts.