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TIL after reviewing previous research & conducting a genetic analysis, a 2024 study found that two populations of orcas (resident & transient), should be recognized as separate species, distinct from both each other & the rest of orcas. Currently, all orcas are categorized as a single species.

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o9go TIL The shower of sparks seen during Space Shuttle launches are often assumed to be engine igniters but they’re actually part of the Hydrogen Burnoff System; a safety system designed to consume unburned hydrogen so it doesn’t damage other parts of the shuttle.
p84yb TIL Allee Willis was originally bothered by the 'ba-dee-ya' lyric in song 'September'. "I just said, 'What the fuck does 'ba-dee-ya' mean?' And [White] said, 'Who the fuck cares?' I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove."
79Gb TIL the actor who played young Forrest Gump is now 30, and he served an 18-month tour in Iraq.
EJd0 TIL an old lady who bumped into Stephen King in the supermarket told him she didn’t like his writing and she preferred uplifting movies like Shawshank Redemption. When King told her he wrote that too, she replied ‘No, you didn’t.’, causing King to momentarily doubt that he was indeed the author.
a5E9 TIL NASA was hesitant to send women into space because they weren’t sure how their periods would affect their performance - “it was theorized that a woman could be bleed to death in micro gravity”