› added 10 years ago

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TIL Japanese Honeybees will lure Giant Hornets into their hive. Once inside the honeybees will signal each other to swarm the hornet and then proceed to vibrate, raising the temperature up to 116° F (47° C). The honeybees can tolerate the heat but the Giant Hornet cant and is literally cooked alive.

RJbw TIL: Sexual reproduction for barnacles is difficult, as the organisms cannot leave their shells to mate. To facilitate genetic transfer between isolated individuals, barnacles have extraordinarily long penises⁠. Barnacles probably have the largest penis to body size ratio of the animal kingdom.
LkdEv TIL "pioneer" was originally a 16th century military rank, meaning people who advanced first into enemy territory to cut down forests, clear trails, make roads and bridges, etc., so the actual troops could march through after. Pioneer has the same French root as pawn or peon, meaning foot soldier.
dDjEZ TIL here's the same amount of intersex people (roughly 2% of the population) as people with red hair, attached earlobes, are one of a pair of twins, have a "murderers thumb," or have an extra cervical rib.
QJPMd TIL when Reagan was shot, HW Bush as Vice President was advised by his aides to proceed directly to the White House by helicopter as an image of the government still functioning. Bush rejected the idea, responding, "Only the President lands on the South Lawn."
N5w6 TIL in 1997 an artist named Howard Hallis started drawing a literal ‘Picture of Everything’, it took 13 years to complete, stands at 15 x 14 feet and apparently the only thing it doesn’t feature is Hitler, and he wanted to sell it for $250,000.