› added 11 years ago

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TIL Most cheerleading apparel and equipment brands in the USA are owned by just one company, which also owns almost all of the regulatory bodies, and also runs the national competitions.

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bMKE TIL that 30 years ago, the Philadelphia mayor approved a bombing on MOVE activists, killing nearly a dozen people—without repercussion.
k805 TIL Sonic Hedgehog is a protein critical to mammalian development. Its inhibitor? Robotnikinin.
LQeVP TIL that even folk tales are classified as per the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) index which catalogues them into 2399 classes based on the overarching theme (animal, magical, religious and so on). For example Cinderella is ATU type 510.
YpQaG TIL pinecones close when they get wet to make sure they disperse seeds on a dry day.
69bb8 TIL about foxfire, the bioluminescent glow from fungus in decaying trees. It is also called fairy fire.