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TIL A telescope designed to view the H-alpha emission produced by excited hydrogen can show granulations on the solar surface and great detail in the sunspot regions. The H-alpha filter must be designed to produce a very narrow pass band around the wavelength of 6,562.8 Ångströms for safe viewing

oRZE7 TIL: That Iceland is the safest country in the world in case of a nuclear war, because it is isolated from the rest of the world, doesn't have a standing army to target and generates all of its electricity from geothermal sources.
eWO5 TIL mathematician Zachary Harris hacked into Google’s email system and sent a e-mail phishing attack to Larry Page from Sergey Brin’s e-mail account. All because he noticed a flaw in an e-mail sent from Google offering him a job and thought it was a test. It wasn’t.
0wK6v TIL that after the Six Day War, Egypt closed down the Suez Canal in 1967 with 15 ships still on it. They remained stuck there for eight years, with the boat crew members forming the Great Bitter Lake Association. The GBLA had social clubs, its own version of an Olympics, and even stamps.
GAyAg TIL that Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton had three boxing matches. Norton won the first, Ali the second, the third was extremely controversial. Ali received the decision, but 17 out of 21 sportswriters polled believed Norton had won it and even Ali felt he had been handed it.
v1de8 TIL there was a Tennessee Republican politician who changed his middle name to 'Low tax' so that it would appear on the ballot box, murdered his political opponent in a later senatorial race, was sentenced to life and died in prison.