› added 12 years ago

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TIL that during the Black Death, many people in Florence participated in orgies and got heavily drunk thinking that it would kill of the disease.

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p8DYb TIL In addition to the main smelly chemical of skunk spray (thiols), there's also another chemical called thioacetates. These chemicals don't stink, but they absorb into hair and fur, and react violently with water to rapidly produce thiols. This stops animals from removing the smell.
D0PP TIL Between 1950 and 1965 the US Miltary lost a total of 10 nuclear weapons, primarily in the ocean, which are still missing.
WkxM8 TIL hyenas are not dogs or canines. In fact, they are feliforms, genetically more closely related to cats than dogs, and their resemblance to canines in appearance and behavior is convergent evolution.
eX9b TIL in 2010, Raytheon used prisoners to test a device called the “Active Denial System”, which fires an invisible heat-beam that is capable of causing unbearable pain
7vrO TIL that, after his presidency, George Washington owned the largest whiskey distillery in the U.S.