› added 1 year ago

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TIL that birds control the shape of their wings during flight using hook-shaped microstructures in their feathers to prevent them spreading too far apart. The detachment of the hooks is noisy, so they are missing from silent fliers such as barn owls.

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R5eB1 TIL that Peter Cetera's vocal style is the result of a broken jaw from being assaulted by marines at a baseball game. He performed Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" with his jaw wired shut, and from then on he always sang with his jaw clenched even after it healed.
1agVP TIL Pazuzu, the demon central to the movie The Exorcist, was actually a protector of children in ancient Mesopotamia.
l71OG TIL since 1399, the monarch of the United Kingdom receives income from the Duchy of Lancaster as part of the sovereign's private purse
QJa0M TIL The National Federation of the Blind estimates that today only one in 10 blind people can read Braille. That's down dramatically from the 1900s.
gr51X TIL Swedish car company Volvo turned down a deal that would see them sell 40% of their company for a share of Norwegian oil, that share is now worth 140-200 billion dollars, Volvo was sold in 2010 for less than 2 billion dollars