› added 2 years ago

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TIL that although Thomas Hart Benton was a loyal aide to future President Andrew Jackson, he still fought a duel with him, in which Jackson was nearly killed.

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0wvQL TIL while writing Star Wars, George Lucas had an Alaskan Malamute (large dog breed) named Indiana. She went everywhere with him, so this inspired Lucas to give Han Solo a "big, furry" sidekick. She also inspired the name for Indiana Jones... who named himself after the family dog.
BrwKy TIL the "ultimate parasitic ant" spends most of its adult life clinging to the back of its host, laying two eggs every minute.
gMvl4 TIL that Russell's teapot is a philosophical analogy that shows that the burden of proof, or whoever must prove a statement, lies on the person defending/making the statement rather than shifting the burden of disproof onto the person attacking/disproving the statement.
j6kBE TIL that inventors of the two most impactful weapon technologies of WWII, Merle Tuve (proximity fuse) and Ernest Lawrence (uranium enrichment for the atomic bomb) were childhood friends and neighbors from the same small town in South Dakota
x6eQk TIL There are only two remaining Northern white rhinoceros alive today, both are female and in captivity, causing this subspecies to be functionally extinct