› added 4 years ago

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TIL astronomers use the Pleiades as a test pattern for telescopes. The Hawaiians used it as a marker for their new year and during this time there was a celebration where all wars were stopped and harvest was done. The Japanese name for this cluster is Subaru, which means “coming together as a team"

Read more stargazehawaii.com

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DVDp TIL: Victoria’s Secret was founded by a guy in the 1970’s who had a very unpleasant experience while trying to buy his wife some underwear. The employees treated him as a pervert. VS almost failed since it catered mostly to men in the beginning.
7dBx TIL that fans reacted badly to Arthur Conan Doyle killing off Sherlock Holmes. It was front-page news around the world; 20,000 people cancelled subscriptions to ‘Strand’ magazine and sent hate mail; thousands wrote to the author begging him to undo the death. Doyle resurrected Holmes a decade later.
nWnGW TIL that modern microwaves actively recommend you put a metal spoon inside when heating liquids to prevent the phenomenon of ‘delayed boiling’ where the liquid gets superheated and can boil over dangerously when disturbed.
ANKLl TIL about "kite fighting", a competitive pastime involving disposable kites and glass-coated strings used to cut loose another fighter's kite.
aw7oy TIL Tiger Woods PGA Tour '99 was recalled because the entire South Park pilot was used as dummy data on the disc and players discovered they could watch the episode by simply putting the game disc into a PC.