› added 2 months ago

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TIL that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother once gave an "anti-toast" to people she disliked, such as dictator Idi Amin, politician Tony Benn, and Jimmy Carter. Carter kissed her on the lips at a function in 1977, and Elizabeth was insulted, as he was the first man since her husband died to do that.

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R9W9 TIL Vulture stomach systems are so strong they can process anthrax, cholera, and botulism. Their feces is completely sterile which cleans their legs (since they’ve been walking in the stuff most likely) and cools them down (they can’t sweat).
rAM4 TIL that you can embed secret messages in vocal music that emege only when multiple people start singing
loeR5 TIL that in 1958, Chairman Mao ordered the killing of all sparrows since they threatened crops. It backfired, since the near-extinction of the sparrows lead to more bugs eating crops. This resulted in the deaths of forty-five million people.
l4ZV TIL some moths have evolved a method of detecting and disturbing echolocation sounds from bats. They can confuse bats by sending false clicks back, they can tell if a bat has found them or not based on the intensity and frequency of a bat’s clicks and they can react accordingly
X0BDD TIL that in 16th to 18th century Scotland, horses got to help with the execution of horse thieves. The pin holding the guillotine blade in place above the condemned horse thief was tied to a horse with a cord, so the blade would fall when the horse took off running.