› added 5 years ago

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TIL of Clifford Stoll a sysadmin who’d tracked a $0.75 accounting error back to a an East German spy ring in one of the first documented cases of a computer break-in.

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4Xvm6 TIL that Physicist Ted Taylor was the first person to light a cigarette using a nuclear bomb. During a bomb test in 1952, he used a parabolic mirror to concentrate the light of the blast enough to heat a cigarette suspended from a tiny wire.
69mXw TIL that on the first day of the battle of Gettysburg, Gen. Henry Heth was shot in the head and knocked unconscious. However, he survived without major injuries. This is partly credited to his oversized hat, which was stuffed with papers to make it fit, thereby deflecting the bullet.
w1x1 TIL - Meerkat sentries will climb just about anything to get a better view of their surroundings…including cameramen.
WkOwN TIL that during the 1960s, North Korea and China fought a number of border skirmishes over the Paektusan mountain
7QdO TIL the word “Ewok” was never said in Star Wars.