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TIL During the long winter of 1886, horses and cattle on the Great Plains died when their breaths froze over the ends of their noses, making it impossible for them to breathe.

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6EEaJ Yes, it’s true that most jetliners are certified for automatic landings, called “autolands” in pilot-speak. But in practice they are rare. Fewer than 1 percent of landings are performed automatically, and the fine print of setting up and managing one of these landings is something I could talk about all day. If it were as easy as pressing a button, I wouldn’t need to practice them twice a year in the simulator or periodically review those tabbed, highlighted pages in my manuals. In a lot of respects, automatic landings are more work-intensive than those performed by hand. The technology is there if you need it for that foggy arrival in Buenos Aires with the visibility sitting at zero, but it’s anything but simple.
dj5B TIL the Adventures of Superman radio program incorporated KKK terms and secrets into a villain that Superman fought every week. Southern Klansmen suddenly began noticing their children dressing up as superman and fighting “klan-man,” which lead to a membership decline as a result.
E1OXw TIL there's only 8 species of bears in the world: brown bears, Asian black bears, American black bears, sun bears, sloth bears, spectacled bears, polar bears, and giant pandas.
W8wL TIL that Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower shooter, asked for an autopsy in his will to determine what made him kill. The autopsy found a tumor pressing on his amygdala, which controls the fight or flight instinct and possibly influenced his actions.
Z8Rvo TIL a Cadbury Flake will not melt