› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the Canadian province of Alberta has no rats, and it is even illegal to own pet rats without a permit.

Read more alberta.ca

via reddit.com

e0MDg TIL that Aboriginal Australian "dot art" where dots and other shapes are used to construct images, while deeply associated with Aboriginal tradition, was only first done in 1971, very recently in the 40,000 year history of art on the continent.
oRdDo TIL that medieval Christian monks had strange haircuts called tonsures, as a symbol of religious devotion and humility.
Yp05B TIL In 1493, Columbus mistook manatees for mermaids and wrote “they are not so beautiful as they are said to be, for their faces had some masculine traits.“
78LkX TIL that in WW2, "unrestricted submarine warfare" - the sinking of merchant ships by submarines without warning - was ordered in response to allied aircraft illegally bombing a Nazi submarine under Red Cross banner openly attempting to rescue survivors of the RMS Laconia.
ReM9 TIL Crocodiles Are More Closely Related To Birds Than They Are To Lizards