› added 7 months ago

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TIL that a piece of a giant squid was recovered by the French ship Alecton in 1861, leading English naturalist Henry Lee and others to come to the conclusion that giant squids were responsible for the legend of the Kraken.

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gMnMy TIL that red is not the only color of blood in the animal kingdom. Several species of octopus have blue blood, ocellated icefish have clear blood, and the green-blooded skink has, well, green blood.
Z8PyD TIL in the 1940s and 50s MIT scientists fed unsuspecting boys oatmeal laced with radioactive materials at a school for mentally disabled and abandoned boys
Md7V TIL wasps are extremely valuable in horticulture since they prey upon almost every pest insect and are used as a natural form of pest control
Rvg7 TIL in 1983 a Russian radar detected the launch of Minuteman missiles by the U.S. The radar operator correctly identified the detection as a false alarm and is credited with averting a likely counterstrike by the Russians which would have started a nuclear war.
LQpXP TIL that in recorded history, there has only been a single hurricane in the South Atlantic Ocean to which made landfall. Ever.