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TIL about the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine, who exhibited a rare disorder which entails an exaggerated startle reflex described as an uncontrollable "jump". Studies recorded individuals who would obey any command given suddenly, even if it meant striking a loved one.

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1aEDX TIL about the Bee Hummingbird, the worlds smallest bird. At the biggest it's 5.5 cm and has an average weight of only 1.95 grams.
m1LXM TIL about Theseus, a robotic mouse created by Claude Shannon in the 1950s, which could learn to navigate mazes using telephone relay switches, marking one of the first instances of machine learning. Theseus helped researchers better understand routing in telephone networks of that era.
9w0y6 TIL: Mick Jackson, director of kooky ‘90s Steve Martin romcom, ‘LA Story’, is the same guy who directed the notoriously trauma-inducing British TV movie about nuclear apocalypse, ‘Threads’. These two films could not be more different if they tried.
6ZDQ TIL that in 1985, Philadelphia police used a helicopter to drop a bomb on a house during a 24 hour conflict involving gunfire with the black activist group MOVE. The explosion caused 50+ homes to burn down resulting in 11 deaths, 5 of which were children.
E14ld TIL there exists a frog so hardcore that when threatened, it breaks its own bone to create a shiv to shank you with.