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TIL magpie birds in Australia regularly swoop-attack cyclists and walkers who get too close to their nests. Thousands of attacks happen annually, mostly a nuisance but also causing hundreds of injuries. In 2018, a toddler sitting in a stroller was almost blinded by a magpie attacking his face.

oRZ6o TIL the brain of a five-year-old child uses 50% of their body’s energy expenditure, rising to 2/3 while resting, which leads to a decline in rate of weight gain. The rate of energy needed for brain development then declines with age and the rate of weight gain resumes in parallel with the brain
19wd TIL baseball player Dave Winfield killed a seagull with a baseball during a game and was subsequently arrested for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal
6EQJZ TIL When the American Confederacy lost the Civil War in May 1865, 10,000 Southerners fled the US for a small city in Brazil.
7rYwZ TIL that Norman Mineta’s baseball bat was confiscated when he was sent to a Japanese American internment camp as a boy. As a Congressman, he was sent a $1500 bat, which he had to send back, as it exceeded a price limit on gifts. He was quoted as saying, “The damn government’s taken my bat again.”
1NeP TIL in 1968, having deemed 11 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons too politically incorrect to air, United Artists withheld them from syndication. The “Censored 11” haven’t aired on TV since, but clips have crept online, giving today’s audiences a window into cringeworthy racist stereotypes.