› added 10 months ago

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TIL about ichneumon wasps, a family of parasitic wasps that lays their eggs in butterfly cocoons, spider nests, or into larger insects directly. The adult wasp paralyzes the hosts such that the ichneumon larvae can feed. After some weeks, the now-mature offspring then emerge en masse from the host

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via reddit.com

J1Qgk TIL Dollar comes from the Dutch "Daalder" and was imported by the Spanish & the $ comes from the F of Florence, Italy, where the bills were printed. (Read the article, it is really interesting)
d9Y8 TIL that the bacteria responsible for the bubonic plague, ‘Yersinia pestis’, spread to humans through fleas by inhibiting the flea’s blood feeding, causing the flea to regurgitate the infected blood into the host’s wound and go on an infectious biting spree in a futile attempt to feed itself.
W7d9B TIL Sonora Carver; one of the first female horse divers, continued horse diving for 11 more years after being blinded from hitting the water with open eyes off of Atlantic City's Steel Pier. Horse diving was a stunt where a horse would be ridden off a 40-60 foot tower into a body of water.
KORaw TIL The Office of Naval Intelligence at the Pentagon has an entire unit of people devoted to the study of UFO's and UFO encounters.
v5bD TIL that a guide dog calmly led 30 people down 1,463 steps out of the World Trade Center on 9/11 despite the confusion, smoke, and noise around them. Once safe, the dog then helped a woman who was blinded by the debris.