› added 1 year ago

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TIL that the thiomargarita magnifica is the largest bacteria ever discovered, big enough to be seen by the naked eye

4JnR TIL that Washington DC’s metro system is plagued by unstable funding & poor safety maintenance. The control room has 1000+ ignored alarms a day, while train operators pee on the track & one who, due to poor driver-control room relations, reportedly disabled trains mid-run on purpose.
Ypg4B TIL When Tiger Woods father passed away, a Green Beret, Tiger became so obsessed with Navy Seals he regularly trained with them at their facilities. His team staged an intervention to avoid him quitting Golf and enlisting.
4Xm6o TIL the small elephant hawk moth (Deilephila porcellus) gets its common name for the caterpillar head's resemblance to an elephant's trunk. Hawk moths are also known as sphinx moths because the caterpillar resembles the Great Sphinx of Giza when resting. They are found in Europe and northern Africa.
epNG5 TIL about the All-American Basketball Alliance, a white-only basketball league proposed in 2010 by boxing promoter Don Lewis. After being decried by mayors and colleges in the cities where teams were proposed, as well as by national media figures, the idea was abandoned.
b9NE4 TIL that the early 19th-century American interpretation of Santa Claus was part of a movement to tone down the wild Christmas celebrations of the era, which included aggressive home invasions under the guise of wassailing (caroling), substantial premarital sex, and public displays of sexual deviancy