› added 5 months ago

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TIL about the US Camel Corps, an experiment to introduce camels as pack animals in the SW.

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6Ebwm TIL about the presocratic philosopher Empedocles. He claimed to have magical powers and a divine status, and would walk around Sicily in a large purple robe. Apparently, he died when he jumped into Etna, an active volcano, to prove to his followers that he really was a god.
QNQ6M TIL Ranulph Fiennes, named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the worlds greatest living explorer, was an SAS Captain until being dismissed for secretly attempting to blow up a dam built for the 1967 Doctor Doolittle movie because he didn’t like it
wZw1 TIL that the bottles of alcohol in cartoons marked with ‘XXX’ isn’t just meaningless. 'XXX’ was used to be an indicator of the strength of beer by a brewery. One 'X’ was weakest, and three 'XXX’ the strongest.
gMYyL TIL that the Syrian brown bear is probably extinct in Syria. It survives in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.
PYnxE TIL A circle roughly 2,500 miles in diameter, when placed over the right part of Asia, could hold more than half the world's population