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TIL Female penguins will sometimes engage in elaborate courtship rituals just to run off with a male’s pebbles. Also, prostitution.

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evMn TIL trains are terrible at going uphill. The steepest incline in England is 1.5° and trains need additional engines pushing in the back to help climb it.
erxn TIL drug overdoses from opiods increased 14% in 2014, killing 40,000 people. This is an increase of 137% since 2000. More people die from drug overdoses, says the CDC, than in road accidents: just under 33,000 people died in traffic accidents last year in 2014.
BGDd TIL The Roman Colosseum had 28 lifts which hoisted animals 24 ft up, then cage lids and trap doors in the arena floor opened simultaneously, unleashing beasts to fight each other or men. A lift was remade last June, ridden by a wolf who received a biscuit when released into the Colosseum.
Egob7 TIL that McVitie's Digestive got its name from the high amount of sodium bicarbonate in it. The inventor theorized that eating the biscuits after a large meal would be beneficial to one's health. Now, they print a disclaimer on them that says, “The biscuit's ingredients lack digestive aids”
5nYR TIL that Lisbeth Salander (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) is based off of what the Stieg Larsson thought Pippi Longstocking might be like as an adult