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TIL When his boat sank off the Jamaican coast, Chris Blackwell - the producer who first discovered Bob Marley - was found near-death by some Rasta fishermen. They nursed him back to full health, forming a bond with their culture that became the basis for his famous investment in the island’s music.

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vPN8D TIL of the Isaaq Genocide. Also known as the "Hargeisa Holocaust", it was the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of Isaaq civilians between 1987 and 1989 by the Somali Democratic Republic, under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, during the Somaliland War of Independence.
p8Ym8 Imagine you spent your entire childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood stuck inside a small closet. One day, after much of your life, has passed you by, you realize that you can just open up the door, change into some more appropriate clothes, and hit the town! Free at last, what would you do first? Maybe sing a bit? Go on a few dates? By the way, you have two to four weeks to live. Yikes. This is not unlike the situation most cicadas face, as they spend almost their entire lives underground. For example, many of the cicadas emerging in 2016 have been underground for 17 years! To put that in perspective, the last Star Wars movie these insects saw was literally a menace. Imagine waking up in a world without Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray! Come to think of it, things are really looking up since 1999. A cicada’s ear-piercing call is intended to attract a gal pal. Considering that these little creatures’ time above ground is so fleeting, they need to lock down a date as soon as possible. This could be why most cicadas are louder than the average fraternity pledge. Adult males are the ones making such a racket, and some species can register sounds louder 100 decibels when calling for a potential mate. In this week’s Today I Learned, National Geographic Emerging Explorer and filmmaker Sandesh Kadur explains how cicadas sing such a loud song.
nenVG TIL that an orphanage in mid-1700s London was able to successfully reunite parents with their children by logging keepsakes, and scraps of material kept by the mother
6EDDm TIL that Japan has an early warning system for earthquakes that notifies you on your smartphone and radio seconds before it happens.
wWZ7 TIL a group of ladybugs is called a “loveliness of ladybugs.”