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TIL the tongue and hyoid bone of this pileated woodpecker wrap around its skull to help cushion the brain while it's pecking for food. The bird's inner-skull contains compressible sponge-like bone, mostly concentrated in the forehead and the back of the skull, which functions as a shock absorber.

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JYkeB TIL that South African inventor Charl Fourie invented a car-mounted flamethrower in 1998 to deter carjackings. The device was legal in South Africa when used in self-defense, but proved to be unprofitable, leading the inventor to design a pocket-sized flamethrower instead
vPwwL TIL the children's book The Iron Giant was based on was written by Ted Hughes, the husband of Sylvia Plath.
E1dDw TIL dogs can lose sleep due to negative emotional responses or stimuli. Researchers found that dogs are less likely to toss and turn or sleep restlessly if they receive positive feedback before bedtime
0P81 TIL that John Lennon’s son, Julian, didn’t know that “Hey Jude” was about him until 20 years after its debut. Paul McCartney wrote it to comfort Julian during his parents’ divorce, and John Lennon always assumed that it was written about himself.
d8GvB TIL that the amount of sunlight that reaches Earth's surface within 1.5 hours has enough energy to satisfy the world's energy consumption for an entire year.