› added 10 years ago

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TIL the Shakers, a religious sect that once numbered over six thousand, died off because one of their central tenants is celibacy.

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9YjnM TIL about Tunnel Boom. Compression waves are generated in front of the high-speed train upon entering a tunnel. These compression waves subsequently coalesce into a weak shock wave so that a unpleasant sonic boom is emitted from the tunnel exit.
nW4bd TIL almost no ticks and mites have faces. Instead, they have a gnathosoma, which is effectively a giant mouth. They need to rely on vibrations to perceive their environments and find hosts.
O6Aa TIL The Election Commission of India stipulates that no person should have to travel more than 2 kms to cast a vote. So in the state of Gujarat, a temple caretaker who lives in an ancient deserted temple gets his own special voting booth, with just one voter.
oBpAL TIL in 2018 Macauley Culkin decided he didn't like his middle name and crowdsourced a new one on twitter. The winner was "Macauley Culkin" making his full name "Macauley Macauley Culkin Culkin"
NXL1 TIL a WoW troll named Angwe camped a bottleneck that was the only route to some key mid-level areas. He blocked the path by killing everyone who passed essentially every hour of every day for months.