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TIL that actor Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, Stranger Things) turned down the lead role of Pete Mitchell in “Top Gun” (1986) as he grew up with siblings that served in the Vietnam war. Modine said: “There’s nothing sexy or romantic about war.” The role ultimately went to Tom Cruise.

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o1Jr TIL Barbara Lee was the only member of congress to vote no on the AUMF after 9/11 stating “It was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events—without regard to our nation’s long-term foreign policy, national security interests, and without time limit.”
Z8lmv TIL it is said that René Descartes René constructed an automaton in his daughter's likeness after she died of scarlet fever; only to have the robot Francine smashed and thrown overboard as a work of Satan during a voyage at sea.
ADM54 TIL: in 1898, Jim White saw bats flying into a tiny hole in the ground, so he crawled down in. The hole led to a cave so big that as he explored it's depths his lantern would burn out and he had to find his way back in pitch blackness by memory. It is now the national park known as Carlsbad Caverns.
GYYk1 TIL outdoor cats are the #1 threat to bird populations. They have contributed to the extinction of 33 bird populations and are responsible for roughly 2.4 billion in bird losses per year.
9YlE6 TIL Marauder ants have a special class of "supermajors" which they will ride like a bus to work, or into battle like elephant Calvary. These large class of ants in the colony serve as living heavy duty tools for the much smaller workers.