› added 11 years ago

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TIL Of “Peter the great”, a cat who was the lone survivor of a New Zealand sulfur mine on a remote island volcano. The resupply ship found no trace of the miners.

Lk0J0 TIL that the term "riding shotgun" comes from the word "shotgun messenger" referring to the guard sitting next to the Stagecoach driver who used a shotgun to ward off robbers and miscreants. This found its way into popular culture through Hollywood's love of Westerns
QNVxM TIL Charles Darwin only worked about 4 hours a day. He worked for two 90-minute periods each morning & then one 60-minute period later in the day. Before the latter, he would take an hour nap & go on 2 walks. On this schedule he wrote 19 books including The Descent of Man & On the Origin of Species.
0w471 TIL "Blah Blah Blah" saying came from Ancient Greece. The term was "bar bar bar". Taken from the same root as barbarian, it implied the words beings spoken were "meaningless noises",
bYN7 TIL female pilots called “WASP’s” were employed to fly military aircraft. When faced with the ultimatum to commission these women, they were instead disbanded and told to be housewives. They were finally granted veteran status in 1977 and given the “Congressional Gold Medal” in 2009.
m1mJy TIL that an area in Texas is called "The Texas Killing Fields." Since the early 1970s roughly 30 bodies have been extracted from the fields, mainly consisting of young girls. The fields have been described as "a perfect place for killing somebody and getting away with it."