› added 12 years ago

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TIL there may exist objects in our Universe that behave just the opposite of a black hole (a white hole). They cannot be entered from the outside, but matter and light can escape. The Big Bang might have been a white hole itself, and big bangs possibly occur at the center of all black holes.

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QJK8X TIL that Arkansas and Kansas are derived from similarly named Native American tribes, but Arkansas took the French spelling while Kansas used the English spelling. The "s" at the end of French words is usually silent. This is why the two almost identical words are pronounced differently.
wL7aY TIL wath the Siberian Corridor was. It was a strip of steppe from Mongolia to the east of Europe, used by nomadic population in their movements from east to west. Huns, Turks and Mongols all went through there. The corridor was closed by the Russian Empire expansion toward Siberia.
WGEL TIL that, while mating, hermaphroditic (having both male and female sexual organs) species of flatworms engage in penis fencing, battling violently to decide which of the two will be the father. The winner stabs his penis into the loser to inseminate it.
BgK8r TIL that Oswald Freisler, a German lawyer during the 1930s, would wear his Nazi Party badge to court when defending political prisoners, sometimes even securing acquittals. He "committed suicide" in 1939.
Z8AEv TIL in 2016, a 155-year-old mousetrap kept on display in a museum in Berkshire caught a mouse.