› added 10 years ago

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TIL Signals that baffled astronomers for 17 years were traced to the observatory microwave

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

Bgvpr TIL that Bosnia and Herzegovina actually has a coastline and is not landlocked by Croatia. A small town in Herzegovina, Neum, connects to the ocean.
1ajRW TIL that it was possible to buy your way out of the Civil War draft, on both the Union and Confederate sides, if you had enough money to pay someone else to sign up in your place.
pYN7b TIL Scientists have been communicating with apes via sign language since the 1960s; apes have never asked one question.
8aXA4 TIL there are about 1,500 species of cicadas known. There are those that appear yearly in midsummer, and there are also the so-called "periodic" cicadas. They appear at prime number intervals - 7 years, 13 years and 17 years. Once every 221 years, the 13-year cycle and 17-year cycle cicadas overlap.
KlwJ TIL in ancient Athens there was a process called “Ostracism” which allowed voters to banish certain politicians they deemed detrimental to the democracy.