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TIL all British Army armored vehicles must have an electric kettle so the crew can brew tea without getting out. This rule was made after a WWII ambush, where a British tank squadron lost 29 vehicles to a surprise attack by four German tanks while the British crews were outside having morning tea

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jQjN TIL the FBI used mail delivery robots in their field offices that navigated the buildings by using cells of black lights to follow an invisible fluorescent paint sprayed onto the carpet to designate its route.
b9wV9 TIL ancient Mesopotamian beer has been recreated by archeologists who describe it as flat, lukewarm, sour, milky-looking and sometimes a bit cloying; the Mesopotamians didn't know about hops and drank it with long reed straws
E1KlW TIL the Indian pitta (Pitta brachyura) gets its name from Telegu meaning "small bird" and it is called Arumani kuruvi or 6 o'clock bird in Tamil. It has a distinctive two note whistling call which is heard around 6AM and around 6PM. During migrations, the bird occasionally flies into people's homes.
7rd8L TIL the word "stereotype" originally referred only to a printing process that allows for the consistent reproduction of a single plate of type and images. "Cliché" meant the sound of molten metal hitting stereotype printing mold.
xVBl7 TIL that while there are many theories for the origin of life, most of them fall into 1 of 4 kinds: 1) Supernatural event, 2) Life arises all the time, 3) Life has no "beginning," 4) Improbable chemical event.