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TIL from 1996-2000, a group of students at MIT made and wrote multiple papers about a robotic flamingo. Dubbed the "Spring Flamingo", it was made to teach them complex robotics and show how feet and actuated ankles helped bipedal walking

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D1Z7g TIL that female ultrarunners are faster than male ultrarunners at distances of over 195 miles. One possible reason for this is that, when compared to males, female ultrarunners have muscles that are more resistant to fatigue and are able to burn their storage of fat for energy more efficiently.
VBlEZ TIL Lucuis Quinctius Cincinnatus was voted dictator during a desperate war with the Aequi around 458 BC. He assumed complete control of the state, achieved victory in 16 days, relinquished his powers and returned to his farm. He may have been appointed dictator again to suppress an "uprising of the
9YJ4m TIL About the "Great Cat Massacre" In 17th century Paris a group of apprentices, angered that they were treated worse than cats, imitated the felines screeching all night. The master ordered the noisy cats killed. The apprentices held a trial, convicted the cats of witchcraft, and hung them.
v018 TIL that while on the set of The Hobbit, Sir Ian McKellen E-Mailed Martin Freeman erotic fan-art depicting Sherlock and Watson.
gMLa8 TIL a California dam collapse in 1928 is considered one of the worst engineering disasters in US history. Its chief engineer took sole responsibility, testifying, "If there was an error in human judgment, I was the human." Over 400 people were killed when the dam failed in the middle of the night.