› added 6 years ago

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TIL scientists have unexpectedly found that the bacterium Colwellia psychrerythraea, an extremophile, can survive at -196 Celsius degrees, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. They're not sure how this is possible.

OoKr4 TIL rabbit teeth are always growing. In the wild, gnawing on tough foods end up wearing the teeth down so they don’t overgrow. Pet rabbits may need to have their teeth trimmed.
p89J4 TIL that the word quarantine comes from an Italian variant of ‘quaranta giorni’, meaning forty days, which was the period that all ships were required to be isolated before passengers and crew could go ashore during the Black Death plague epidemic. They would fly this flag known as “Yellow Jack”.
yVdxl TIL That there is a small island in the South Pacific, where villagers worship a mythical American WW2 veteran named John Frum, believing that he will bring them material wealth one day.
wL86Y TIL of elder rights activist Maggie Kuhn who founded the activist group Gray Panthers. She advocated for intergenerational housing, opposed the Vietnam War, attempted to reduce the taboo surrounding the sexualities of older people, and believed teenagers should have more societal responsibility.
J1JZ8 TIL On Jan. 30, 1607, the water levels in the Bristol Channel in the UK suddenly rose to more than 25 feet above sea level. Water flooded towns and villages along the coast in England and Wales, causing an estimated 2000 deaths and thousands of animals drowned and farm fields of above 200sqmi ruined