› added 6 years ago

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TIL Pythagoras had a weird cult that lasted for centuries after his death. They worshiped numbers, invented the first robot (a steam-powered pigeon) and were afraid of beans because they cause excessive flatulence. He was murdered when he was chased to a bean field and refused to cross it.

VMkDG TIL that peregrine falcons attack like missiles: using the same steering rules, and diving down at extreme speed to gain control. All this to capture its highly agile and wildly maneuvering prey. They also mate for life and have the same profile as a B-2 Bomber.
KY8mQ TIL that the formation of the Norwegian black metal scene included multiple murders, a suicide, and over 50 church burnings by 1995.
VBdx4 TIL: Contactless payments such as phones, cards, etc have numerous studies that shows users spend more. This is due to the removal of the "psychological pain" of spending. Users will spend twice as much. Coincidentally, the rise of frictionless payment correlates with rising consumer debt worldwide.
8aOr8 TIL of Canned Lions, who are taken from their mothers, sold to petting zoos and then ultimately to hunting events for tourists to shoot. It’s legal in SA.
5VrRp TIL that perhaps counterintuitively, defibrillators do not shock the heart to get it to beat normally- the shock actually stops the heart from beating altogether. This allows the natural automatic pacemaker of the heart to operate again and restore the heart's rhythm back to normal.