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TIL The French are European Champions at abandoning pets. Between 100,000 and 200,000 pets are abandoned in France every year (60% during summer). In the UK the figure is closer to 16,000 a year. Typical excuses include going on holiday, having a baby, moving house, and new partner with allergies

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via reddit.com

KJnQ TIL An electron differs from a perfect sphere by less than 0.000000000000000000000000001 of a centimeter – so that “if the electron were magnified to the size of the solar system, it would still appear spherical within the width of a human hair.”
4Xr1g TIL Oxyphenbutazone is theoretically the highest-scoring of all the Scrabble words—hooked to the right words, it would earn a whopping 1,778 points, found Dan Stock of Ohio. But it would require perfect placement of eight other tiles, so it’s never actually been played in a real game.
wLKBW TIL that abolitionist martyrJohn Brown was “cheerful” awaiting execution. Brown, a devout Christian recognizing the power of martyrdom, was “fully persuaded that I am worth inconceivably more to hang than any other purpose.” Emerson: “If he shall suffer. the gallows will be glorious like the cross.”
M44V TIL the Indian government has issued cattle ID cards of cows in West Bengal to stop smuggling of cows to Bangladesh. Each cattle ID card has the picture of the animal & the owner with information such as its color,height,sex and length of horns and details-like “one horn missing” or “half tail lost”
b6oQ TIL that actor Kevin Spacey has kept his private life as secret as possible and says “The less you know about me, the easier it is to convince you that I am that character on screen.”