› added 8 years ago

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TIL that serial killer Javed Iqbal was sentenced to death by being strangled in front of his victims family’s, dismembered and then burned in a vat of acid, in the same way he killed over 100 16 year old boys. He was found dead in his cell before the execution could be carried out.

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p8Ym8 Imagine you spent your entire childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood stuck inside a small closet. One day, after much of your life, has passed you by, you realize that you can just open up the door, change into some more appropriate clothes, and hit the town! Free at last, what would you do first? Maybe sing a bit? Go on a few dates? By the way, you have two to four weeks to live. Yikes. This is not unlike the situation most cicadas face, as they spend almost their entire lives underground. For example, many of the cicadas emerging in 2016 have been underground for 17 years! To put that in perspective, the last Star Wars movie these insects saw was literally a menace. Imagine waking up in a world without Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray! Come to think of it, things are really looking up since 1999. A cicada’s ear-piercing call is intended to attract a gal pal. Considering that these little creatures’ time above ground is so fleeting, they need to lock down a date as soon as possible. This could be why most cicadas are louder than the average fraternity pledge. Adult males are the ones making such a racket, and some species can register sounds louder 100 decibels when calling for a potential mate. In this week’s Today I Learned, National Geographic Emerging Explorer and filmmaker Sandesh Kadur explains how cicadas sing such a loud song.
BrPxW TIL that Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in the southerns states, then returned again and again to rescue 70 more enslaved people. Then later, after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, she helped guide fugitives farther north into Canada. During the American Civil War she helped the Union Army.
vDbx TIL 4 Americans have the same amount of wealth as 40% Americans combined.
d8XkK TIL that many elevators in Denmark have a button labeled 'I fart', which translates as 'In motion'. When Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1960, strips of tape were used to cover these buttons in any elevators she used.
W7Ypo TIL that the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 2 hours as part of a magazine marketing campaign to sell American flags.