› added 6 years ago

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TIL there is a "solar powered" species of hornet that uses a chemical in its exoskeleton to convert sunlight into energy

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W7JaY TIL only 16 out of 54 African countries have been visited by a sitting US president.
BryDy TIL politicians mocked John Adams, nicknaming him "His Rotundity" after he had suggested that the president should be titled like royalty, suggesting titles such as, "His Majesty the President" and “His Highness, the President of the United States of America, and Protector of the Rights of the Same"
8jW4 TIL that If the earth would be a 40 year old guy, humans would have been using tools for a week and a half, and just left Africa 8 hours ago to settle around the globe
loEdV TIL about Haing S. Ngor - a Cambodian doctor who was sent to a Khmer Rouge concentration camp in 1975, was tortured for 4 years, escaped in 1979, won an Oscar in 1985, wrote an acclaimed memoir in 1988, started a charity in 1990, and was murdered by an LA gang in 1996.
oY0E TIL that during the Normandy Allied Invasion Bill Millin, a Scottish Piper, played his bagpipes as he walked the beach while the carnage erupted around him. He later asked captured German prisoners why they hadn’t shot at him. They said they thought he was on a suicide mission and was clearly mad.