› added 1 week ago

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TIL about Project Excalibur, a sub-program within the US's Strategic Defense Initiative that intended to provide defense against ballistic missiles in the most abysmal way imaginable: Anti-ICBM Nuke Blast X-Ray Laser Beams

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olQr TIL that whites used to pay to throw balls at blacks at the circus. They were called “African Dodgers.”
vMJj TIL The holiday suicide myth supports misinformation about suicide that might ultimately hamper prevention efforts. The idea that suicide rates increase during the holiday season is a myth perpetuated by the media. In fact, suicide rates are the lowest in December.
b9oe7 TIL: GPS signals are being spoofed in some areas of Moscow: “the fake signal, which seems to center on the Kremlin, relocates anyone nearby to Vnukovo Airport, 32 km away. The scale of the problem did not become apparent until people began trying to play Pokemon Go.”
d8pBd TIL Myrmica sabuleti, or the Myrmica Ant, is often tricked by a caterpillar species that pretends to be ant larvae. It waits on a thyme leaf until the ants spot it and carry it to their nest, where it then feeds on ant grubs for the next 10 months before emerging as a Large Blue butterfly.
wLPZ6 TIL that singer Marvin Gaye was fatally shot the day before his birthday, by his own father (a Christian minister), by a gun that Marvin had gifted to him. Marvin was suicidal and physically hit his father because it was established that his father would kill any of his children who might do so.