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TIL hippos have a reflex that allows them to automatically surface, take a breath, and sink back down while sleeping

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9w40M TIL Since 2011, Chinese astronauts are officially banned from visiting the International Space Station
AD887 TIL Madagascar got its name when Marco Polo confused the island with the city of Mogadishu and then misspelled the name in his writings.
EgPed TIL that the reason crystals and rocks feel cold to the touch is that they have "high thermal inertia". In other words, a rock that sits on a table in a 24°C room will want to take in heat from our 36.8°C bodies,.. and that feels cold. Once it has gained that 12.8°C it does not feel cold any more.
5Y1LQ TIL that in 1967, the Tax Court of the United States ruled, over IRS protests, that catching a baseball one‐handed was so remarkable and valuable a technique that a player was justified in deducting as a business expense a cash payment to his father as compensation for teaching him
JrZk TIL that the word “Nonchalant” has no opposite. There’s no “chalant,” just “nonchalant.” Only the negative form of the word has found a home in English.