› added 1 month ago

7

TIL that mountain chickadees can change direction in mid-air in .03 seconds!

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W7xp9 TIL: In 536 A.D., there was a worldwide dust cloud that blocked out the sun for a year, resulting in widespread famine and disease.
XpMD TIL: Hypothermia victims may do paradoxical undressing before losing consciousness. On the skin constricted blood vessels suddenly dilates and produce a sensation of extreme heat.
oBP4E TIL that in the 9th century Chinese alchemists in search of the elixir of life created a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. Ironically, short of a path to immortality, they had discovered gunpowder.
lwl1 TIL Russian hamsters are monogamous and particularly male hamsters may become very depressed if separated with their mate; becoming inactive, eating more and showing similar behavior to depressed humans.
XEPnX TIL After Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská lost her training facility due to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, she trained for the 1968 Olympics in the forest using potato sacks as weights and logs as beams. She medaled in all six events, four of them Gold.