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TIL a Victorian hack of growing rhubarb in complete darkness - except for the light of a single candle - produces a sweeter and redder result

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via reddit.com

4knkw TIL that horseshoe crabs have blue blood that detects pathogens, and they're being hunted for it to extinction!
6RK8 TIL A WWII messenger pigeon named GI Joe was awarded a bravery medal for “Making the 20 mile flight from British 10th Army HQ, in the same number of minutes … just in time to save the lives of at least 100 Allied soldiers” 31 other pigeons have been awarded for bravery during service.
nW87 TIL astronauts have a patch of Velcro inside their helmet so they can scratch their nose.
9YJam TIL of the nocturnal eastern quoll, a cat-sized marsupial once extinct in Australia then re-introduced from Tasmania. Quolls are related to Tasmanian devils; both are carnivorous marsupials, and quolls have been known to snatch food from Tasmanian devils.
Lwlp TIL Until 1616 coffee was essentially a monopoly run by Yemen. Merchants were forbidden to sell live coffee plants or seeds. That changed when Pieter van der Broecke, a Dutch merchant, stole coffee seeds and brought them back to Holland. 40 years later coffee had traveled as far as Sri Lanka.