› added 4 years ago

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TIL that male cichlids have oval-shaped dots on their anal fins called egg-spots used to trick females who are carrying unfertilised eggs in their mouth to think they’ve dropped some. The female will then place her mouth to the anal fin and receive a load blown into her face.

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4XyNg TIL The oubliette of Leap Castle in Ireland was discovered to have had over 150 skeletons and may have been in use as recently as the mid-1800s.
x65jo TIL that the Soviet space probe Phobos-2, , designed to explore Mars' moons, failed because 2 of its 3 computers died, and since it used a system where the computers voted on any decision, the 1 healthy computer was unable to outvote 2 dead computers
wL1L8 TIL: The 2002 Iraqi presidential referendum, according to “official statistics”, had a “100% turnout” in which every eligible voter in the country of 11.4 million, supposedly voted “yes” to continuing Saddam Hussein’s rule. Not a single vote for “no”.
Y9bZ TIL underwater Octopus Wrestling was a popular sport in the 1960s with the annual World Championships held in Puget Sound, Washington. The event was televised and attracted 5000 spectators. The caught octopuses (which can grow up to 90 pounds) were either eaten, donated, or released back to the wild
0YBA TIL that Comcast has won the “Worst Company in America” award twice, first in 2010 and second in 2014.