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TIL Every time you enter a captcha, you’re helping digitize a book

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4XQ7X Today I Learned that the # symbol isn’t officially called the hashtag or the pound sign. It’s technical name is octothorpe. The “octo” means “eight” referring to how many points it has.
0wvEM TIL the American Pygmy Shrew has to eat three times its weight daily to survive, which means capturing prey every 15-30 minutes, day and night, and thus only ever sleeps a few minutes at a time.
WQ4X TIL that from 1904 to 1925, a cartoon called “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend” ran in a New York paper. It featured bizarre nightmares, and among other things pioneered the idea of giant characters destroying a city. It has been called “perhaps the most bizarre newspaper feature in American history”.
7Myx TIL oil was formed from bacteria in the ocean and not dinosaurs.
N7vM6 TIL that for over a century, locals in Meghalaya, India have been using trees to build root bridges, known locally as jing kieng jri. Taking 15 to 30 years to grow, they can span up to 250′ above gorges and rivers and support up to 35 people at a time.