Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk

[Broken_Erika]

TIL about Saturn the alligator who survived ww2.

Berlin WW2 bombing survivor Saturn the alligator dies in Moscow Zoo

An alligator who survived World War Two in Berlin and was rumoured - wrongly - to have belonged to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has died in Moscow Zoo.

"Yesterday morning, our Mississippi alligator Saturn died of old age. He was about 84 years old - an extremely respectable age," the zoo said.

Saturn was gifted to Berlin Zoo in 1936 soon after he was born in the US. He escaped the zoo being bombed in 1943.

British soldiers found him three years later and gave him to the Soviet Union.

How he spent the intervening years always remained a mystery, but since July 1946 the alligator has been a hit with visitors in Moscow.

"Moscow Zoo has had the honour of keeping Saturn for 74 years," the zoo said in a statement.

"For us Saturn was an entire era, and that's without the slightest exaggeration... He saw many of us when we were children. We hope that we did not disappoint him."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52784240

 

[Ajidica]

The BBC seems to be on a roll when it comes to strange animal stories!

Canada v US: Loon stabs eagle through heart

As with global affairs, nature has its pecking order.

And in a contest between the bald eagle, America's national bird, and a common loon, which is featured on Canada's dollar coin, few would bet on the latter to come out the victor.

But sometimes the underdog comes out on top, as was revealed when an eagle was found dead in the water near a dead loon chick in a Maine lake.

A necropsy revealed he was killed by a stab to the heart from a loon's beak.

Baby loons are common prey for eagles, which are fearsome hunters.

Bald eagles are protected in the US, and typically their remains are sent to the directly to the National Eagle Repository in Colorado.

It is a crime in the US to kill an eagle, possess one or disturb its remains, except for special exemptions, such as in the use of Native American ceremonies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52779727

 

[Takhisis]

TIL that not only does Korea have American style baseball, they have American style cheerleaders.

They have perpetrated the invention of frozen yoghurt and keep pumping out '90s-style boy- and girl-bands made up of 15-year-olds.

In your defence, at least you don't sound much surprised.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned about Sans Forgetica, a font that's designed to make it easier to remember study notes. (It's really hard to read though.)

 

[elmurcis]

"Forgetica" to remember... Hmmmm..

 

[r16]

the real rant with the tropes link is the site they link to . Photographs of the past and ı remember the days when internet was optimized for computers and not phones . One picture per page yet like 10 seperate ads it takes ages to go through 67 pages because that was one ı took to see how many of them ı would recognize , not the pictures but the events and the like . ı would say about 15 or 20 and had previously seen 3 ... And yes , the guy certainly had some crush on Jamie Lee Curtis ...

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned that Burmese pythons have been known to eat entire alligators.

 

[Hakim]

Imagine the belching!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

TIL that according to Cadbury, chocolate should be kept in the cupboard instead of the fridge.

 

[Synobun]

People put their chocolate in the fridge? I could see it in high-heat environments, but I'd never have considered it as a rule, really.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I sometimes put it in the fridge in summertime because leaving it in the cupboard turns it all soft and gooey.

 

[Morty]

Personally, I reckon it should be kept in fridge until about 5 minutes before needing to it, so that it just begins to soften up.

 

[rah]

Regular choc no. but reese's peanut butter cups I like to keep cooler.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

TIL that the Easternmost point in the United States is not in Maine.

 

[Samson]

TIL that the Easternmost point in the United States is not in Maine.

So which do you reckon is, the US Virgin Islands or Alaska?

And my TIL: There really are tribbles, and they are made of moss and move about on glaciers:

NPR, original paper

 

[rah]

TIL that the Easternmost point in the United States is not in Maine.

So where is it?
Simple google search shows
West Quoddy Head, Me., is the easternmost point, located 2,507 miles from the geographic center of the United States (including Hawaii and Alaska). The westernmost point is Cape Wrangell, Alaska, which is 3,625 miles west of center.
Other searches showed a similar result.
Or are you defining it differently?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

In something that screwed up my mind, the southernmost part of Canada (I think it's an island in one of the great lakes) is further south than the northernmost part of California.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

So where is it?
Simple google search shows
West Quoddy Head, Me., is the easternmost point, located 2,507 miles from the geographic center of the United States (including Hawaii and Alaska). The westernmost point is Cape Wrangell, Alaska, which is 3,625 miles west of center.
Other searches showed a similar result.
Or are you defining it differently?

It's in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Right next to the westernmost point, just about. There actually isn't an island right on the 180 degree line, but the two islands it passes between are not very far apart. There are other territories, like Guam, but it is the only part of the actual states that is in the eastern hemisphere.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

So the easternmost part of the U.S. is the westernmost point?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

So the easternmost part of the U.S. is the westernmost point?

Not quite. If an island fell right on the 180 degree line it would be.

Easternmost and Westernmost points in US.

Both at 179 point something.