› added 9 months ago

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TIL pilot whales actively confront orcas and most interactions result in the orcas leaving the area.

Read more link.springer.com

via reddit.com

WkJBN TIL for several years a company that kept a database of US IP address locations used a point near the geographical center of the US as the default location when the IP address locations were hidden. As a result a farm in Kansas had been targeted by the FBI, IRS, and angry vigilantes.
MeQvm TIL that author Douglas Adams once got an offering of £50,000 to write a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy calendar. A few weeks later, having done no work towards it, another call came saying the deal had fallen through but that he would still be paid half the fee. He celebrated with champagne.
JY46V TIL in 1964 an icy runway caused a taxiing B-58 bomber to flop over and topple onto its fuel tanks. This ignited 14,000 gallons of blended gasoline and kerosene and barbecued the bomber’s nuclear payload…including a 9-megaton bomb powerful enough to flash fry any exposed human within 20 miles.
XExRE TIL about Matilda Joslyn Gage, an abolitionist, suffragist and theosophist who wrote a book called “Women, Church and State.” She was also “The Wizard of Oz” author L Frank Baum’s mother in law, and it is suggested she inspired his “good witches.”
9K8M TIL that carrots used in canned soup are specially-bred giant carrots the size of baseball bats, because normal carrots don’t stand up to the vigorous production process.