› added 4 years ago

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TIL spiders tune their webs like guitar strings, tightening and loosening strands so they can read the different frequencies caused by intruders and determine where/how big the intruders are, if they are predator or prey, or if they’re just a potential mate flirtatiously strumming their strings.

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wxl8 TIL that in 1978 France rolled out a pre-World Wide Web online service (MiniTel) that gave it’s users access to online shopping, search engines, cybersex, message boards etc … France Telecom only retired the service in 2012 after 30 years and 800 000 units still in use.
J1w7V TIL that the actor Lorne Greene, later known for his roles on 'Bonanza' and 'Battlestar Galactica', first achieved fame as a Radio Newscaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during the early days of WWII. He became known as 'The Voice of Doom" because of the grim news he often reported.
wLOaY TIL one of the origin theories of the modern military salute comes from France. Knights were thought to greet one another in respect by lifting their visor with their free hand to reveal their face. The hand gesture of lifting the visor being similar to the "salute" hand gesture we do today.
M7J1B TIL that there is an impact crater over 25 miles in diameter buried beneath Chesapeake Bay which was revealed in 1993 from oil drilling data, and that prior to impact many, many moons ago, Richmond, VA was covered in thick tropical rainforest
9wDR7 TIL France has a history of UFO claims going back to the 800s.