› added 10 months ago

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TIL of a fungus that infects periodical cicadas, Massospora cicadina, which produces drug-like substances such as an amphetamine analogue, causing infected cicadas to be hypersexual, as well as causing infected male cicadas to allow themselves to be mounted by other males in order to infect them.

0Yop TIL of a Marine who purposely sent classified information over an unsecured server in order protect fellow Marines from a corrupt Afghan Police Chief in 2012, the Marine was separated from the service after self reporting his actions.
mxlmy TIL that in 1986, serial killer Wayne Nance broke into Doug and Kris Welles’s home. Despite being bound, stabbed in the chest, and then later shot, Doug managed to save his wife by shooting their attacker in one of the few known cases of a serial killer being killed by their intended victim.
gwgA TIL that “chemical imbalance” as a cause of depression is overly simplified, and “researchers believe that — more important than levels of specific brain chemicals — nerve cell connections, nerve cell growth, and the functioning of nerve circuits have a major impact on depression.”
6dN7 TIL Hitler wrote a second book after Mein Kampf in 1928. In it he describes why he would go to war in Europe and how he admired US eugenics programs. It was never published because he feared it would hurt already-low Mien Kampf sales.
wop9J TIL about Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), a disorder characterized by extreme, uncontrollable anxiety in the face of anything perceived as a "demand." Those with PDA may try to avoid not only the demands of others, but also the demands of their own body, such as for hunger or sleep.