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TIL pineapple’s mouth-tingle is a defense trick: tiny needle-like crystals (raphides) jab your tissue while the enzyme bromelain breaks down proteins. Studies suggest this one-two punch evolved to ward off herbivores.

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kV9g TIL the original translation of “mortgage” means “death pledge”
W7XbX TIL that on warning of a likely missile launch against the USA, the Pentagon and Strategic Command war rooms, have one minute to brief the president, who then has roughly only six minutes to decide whether and how to respond.
jNybv TIL Princess Diana was a self-mutilator. She publicly admitted throwing herself down stairs whilst pregnant and cutting herself with razors, penknives, and other kitchen tools because of her torment over her marriage relationship.
neKgW TIL that Linus Pauling, the extremely smart scientist who claimed Vitamin C would treat the common cold, prolong your life, and cure cancer, died in 1994 due to prostate cancer, a disease that he said vitamins would cure.
7r8ZX In this week’s Today I Learned, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Thandiwe Mweetwa explains how female lions synchronize their reproductive cycles so they have cubs around the same time.