› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the US Air Force speculated on producing a non lethal psychochemical weapon that would discharge female pheromones to make the enemy soldires fall in love with each other

NO1b TIL that in the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, residents of Sendai received 10-30 seconds and Tokyo 60 seconds warning from Japan’s Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system before the major seismic waves hit. Alerts pushed to cellphones, TV broadcasts and web pages around the country.
epj64 TIL that Venus flytraps only close their jaws if two of the “hairs” in their “mouth” are touched within ~20 seconds of each other, and only begin digestion if five hairs are triggered. This helps to ensure they only expend their energy trying to consume live prey.
neZJ9 TIL about the ‘Stoned Ape’ theory the idea that ingestion of psychedelic mushrooms was the "evolutionary catalyst" from which language, projective imagination, the arts, religion, philosophy, science, and all of human culture sprang.
6oPZ TIL that owls have serrations on the edge of their flight feathers, allowing an owl’s flight to be practically silent. Some fish-eating owls, for which silence has no evolutionary advantage, lack this adaptation.
W7BO4 TIL after hearing her employer and lover who admired the Marquis de Sade claim that a woman couldn't write an erotic novel; writer Anne Desclos wrote one that was both massively successful and caused the government to pursue obscenity charges because of the sadomasochistic themes therein.