Post * DQDdP — Curious Curator

› added 3 months ago

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TIL the Hooded Pitohui is one of the few known poisonous birds in the world. Native to New Guinea, this bird's feathers and skin contain a neurotoxin called homobatrachotoxin the same kind of toxins found in certain poison dart frogs.

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D1DLV TIL that the Marvel character Howard the Duck, under threat of legal action, is forced to wear always pants. Disney was afraid people would confuse him for Donald Duck and demanded Marvel draw pants on Howard so that you could tell them apart.

4XN7J TIL the National Trust implores us to stop urinating in a toilet, in order to save the water used in flushing, and instead wee onto compost heaps, which speeds up the chemical process of decomposition, making it a better fertiliser to grow vegetables and save even more energy in reducing food miles.

N8Je TIL that the second flag of the Confederate States of America was, in the words of its creator W.T. Thompson, a symbol of the “supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race”.

GYdG4 TIL DisneyWorld has a Mosquito Surveillance Program designed to track mosquitos using carbon dioxide traps. They also employ chickens and test their blood for mosquito born illness and eradicate them. TIL you won't get bit by mosquitos at Disney World, even though its in the middle of a swamp

NXwN TIL: In the 13th century, Rabbi Moses ben Naḥman (Nachmanides) wrote a description of the first moments after creation with a striking similarity to our modern understanding of the big bang and the expansion of the universe.