› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Melbourne, Australia was once called ‘Batmania’. Named after the Tasmanian explorer John Batman.

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gMyX7 TIL in 2001, two Japan Airlines aircraft carrying a total of 677 people were sent on a collision course by a trainee controller and his supervisor. The two planes only took evasive action after visually spotting each other, narrowly avoiding collision by 135 meters (443 feet).
4yMa TIL that in 1961, one giga FLOPS would have theoretically cost $8.3 trillion USD (adjusted to inflation) whereas today one giga FLOPS costs 8 cents.
neayb TIL that the stomach is lined with a network of neurons, which is responsible for making us experience the "gut feeling" we get when we are nervous. There are actually over 100 million brain cells in the gut, which is as many as there are in the brain of a cat.
9wwWM TIL that researchers believe the area around two cemeteries in Kyrgyzstan is the origin of the plague
R7l58 TIL gold is created by two neutron stars colliding