› added 10 years ago

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TIL I learned that only 5% of British police are authorised to use firearms. A 2006 survey of 47,328 Police Federation members found 82% did not want officers to be routinely armed on duty, despite almost half saying their lives had been “in serious jeopardy” during the previous three years.

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NXbQb TIL about Neutron stars, pulsars, and magnetar. And Interesting fact is that if Neutron collides with earth, then life on earth would probably perish well before the planet is destroyed - a NS is a strong source of X and soft gamma rays, that will sterilize the planet well before it reaches surface.
x66y5 TIL that there is a difference between a Donkey and a Mule. Mules are the result of breeding a female horse (Mare) and male donkey (Jack)
OJxg TIL a slave named Gordon ran away from a Mississippi plantation and used onions to throw bloodhounds off his scent. He went on to become a Union soldier during the Civil War. His photo was used by abolitionists to cast light on the brutality of slavery.
6EAal TIL over a hundred years ago, virtually every American city had public streetcars that people took to work. That includes cities we don't think of as hubs for mass transit today, like Atlanta, Raleigh, and Los Angeles. Today, just 5 percent of U.S. workers commute via via public transit.
ADGyx TIL Polaris aka the North Star, appears stationary in the sky because it is positioned close to the line of the Earths axis projected into space. As such, it is the only bright star whose position relative to a rotating Earth does not change.