› added 10 months ago

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TIL that female cicadas have metal ovipositors so that they can drill the tree bark to lay eggs. The only animal with an organ that is mostly made out of transition metals.

Read more nature.com

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JYxmm TIL only about 50% of people get chills from music
rnp1 TIL that dropping a bomb from a balloon is, to this day, a violation of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, although there is no such prohibition for dropping a bomb from an aircraft
OovYX TIL the reason why the clutch, brake, and accelerator are in the same order in modern cars is because the British government needed civilian cars to be standardized in case they had to be commandeered and driven by soldiers during WW1
JYBD8 TIL of Twilight Sleep, a popular childbirth practice that was supposedly pain-free because it erased the memory of the birth by putting the women in a semi-narcotic state. In reality, women thrashed, banged their heads, clawed, screamed, were bound, and laid in their own vomit and waste.
4kKWJ TIL not only was animal abuse illegal before child abuse, but the SPCA helped with the first child abuse case in America