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Short answer: It's an adorable means of self-protection.

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VBw84 TIL that Fort Douaumont, the largest and most important fort in the city of Verdun’s defence system during World War I, fell to a force of 98 Germans in 3 days in February 1916. It took the French army 302 days, and an estimated 100,000 casualties to retake it.
yVoyM TIL there has not been a midair collision of a jet airliner in the US in 36 years. From 1960 to 1986 there were eight such crashes, including one with a fighter jet near Los Angeles in 1971.
BlMW TIL: At 0.21% of the total population, the United States has the lowest percentage of its population living in its capital city in the world
grOv4 TIL the Flying Hamburger was Germany's first fast diesel train right before Hitler took power. It attained a speed of around 160 km/h. It was the fastest regular rail connection in its time. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and started stockpiling fuel, it was put out of commission.
e0LBn TIL of Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, Icelandic explorer, who sailed to America around 1000ad. She was the first European to give birth there. She also sailed across North Atlantic eight times between Greenland, Iceland and Norway. Later in her life she made a pilgrimage to Rome and back.