› added 1 year ago

69

TIL a basking shark capsized a sailing boat and drowned 3 people

Read more goshark.co.za

via reddit.com

ADyJx TIL that when King Leopold II of Belgium personally acquired the "Congo Free State" in 1885, it was 76 times the size of Belgium. He claimed the land at the 1884-1885 Berlin conference promising to improve the lives of the locals but ended up enslaving them to gather ivory and natural rubber.
78k5r TIL a pregnant cat was bought by a lighthouse keeper into a previously isolated island south of New Zealand and it (as well as its feral kittens) went on to cause the extinction of an endemic flightless bird (Stephens Island Wren) shortly after
EoNP TIL that hackers attacked an epilepsy forum using JavaScript code and flashing computer animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some users.
JnXj TIL The Kids in the Hall got their name from an old Hollywood practice of blaming the young writers that hung out and wrote jokes on the fly in the hallways of live TV talk/variety shows when a joke bombed. “I got this from the kids in the hall”
nebEW TIL: The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has a reverse osmosis system capable of producing more than 500 tonnes of fresh, drinkable water from sea water per day.