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TIL The US owes less to other countries than it’s owed.

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via reddit.com

p8EpA TIL The black-and-white Navigation Cameras on Curiosity’s mast show that it had to manoeuvre its robotic arm to act as a selfie stick. The arm and turret along with it were moved to face the rover and had to be moved a lot to capture the 86 images.
W79L TIL Hundreds of millions of birds are killed each year colliding with manmade structures
p8oe4 TIL a poor 19th century Chinese man failed the civil service exam, fell ill, reread a Christian pamphlet he had earlier ignored, & hallucinated that he was Jesus' brother. He led a cult/rebellion that conquered much of southern China, crowning himself as king. This civil war killed over 10 million.
R5g41 TIL an Oregon man trapped in the snow for 5 days survived by eating Taco Bell hot sauce packets
m1bVy TIL that ray spiders anchor their web with an extra thread attached to the center. By flicking tension on the anchor line with four of their legs, these spiders can fire their entire web like a bowstring, accelerating over 50 g to snatch passing insects out of the air in less than 1/100 of a second.