› added 3 months ago

7

TIL bird feathers are actually modified reptilian scales

Read more bbc.com

via reddit.com

Wjgd TIL elephants around the world are evolving to be born without tusks since they are selecting mates with tuskless traits that survive poachers, thus spreading the gene.
mDO TIL Parts of New York City have a vacuum-driven garbage-collection system that literally sucks trash through pipes under the streets to a central disposal location–and has had it for 35 years.
epZR4 TIL Japan's new PM Shigeru Ishiba is a moderate conservative, for same-sex marriage, a fan of cooking, especially curries, military vehicles, trains and Japanese idols, is part of a Japanese govt. intraparty ramen society, and said he would deploy the JSDF in response to Godzilla.
VBw84 TIL that Fort Douaumont, the largest and most important fort in the city of Verdun’s defence system during World War I, fell to a force of 98 Germans in 3 days in February 1916. It took the French army 302 days, and an estimated 100,000 casualties to retake it.
X0J0r TIL that Irving Berlin is the oldest songwriter to ever have a song they wrote reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 charts. In 1983, when Berlin was 95 years old, a version of his song Puttin' On the Ritz by the artist Taco peaked at Number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.