› added 1 year ago

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TIL of TOTO (TOtable Tornado Observatory), a white metal barrel, weighing 250-350 pounds. TOTO would be tipped into a vertical position & swiveled so certain side faced north (for accurate wind direction readings). The closest TOTO deployment to a tornado was on 29 April 1984 near Ardmore OK.

M7b0W TIL that in 1863, when Harriet Tubman was under the command of Union Colonel James Montgomery, she became the first woman to lead a major military operation in the United States when she and 150 African American Union soldiers rescued more than 700 slaves in the Combahee Ferry Raid in the Civil War.
DG9V TIL that the most densely populated area to ever exist on earth was a largely self-governed, crime-infested block in Hong Kong. Called Kowloon Walled City, it had a population density of 1,255,000 people per square kilometer
4mw5 TIL: Coconut crabs are so adapt and hearty to living on the land that they can live up to 60 years and will drown if submerged in water for too long. They also can climb trees and will do so for coconuts which they eat.
Ypkvv TIL a man sent free tennis balls to people all over the world if they promised to use them to play with their dogs
oR7Oo TIL DNA transfer does not only occur "vertically", that is, from parent to progeny. There is also a form of DNA transfer known as horizontal or intracellular DNA transfer, which consists in a piece of DNA being transferred from the genome of one cell to that of another—including between species.