› added 10 years ago

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TIL that peacocks’ extravagant tailfeathers are an evolutionary disadvantage, because they invite predators. Peahens are attracted to them because any animal with such a clear ‘design flaw’ must have other strong genetic qualities to compensate for it.

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w1VY TIL many color laser printers employ ‘hidden’ dot codes that encode the serial number of the specific printer on every printed page to make your documents forensically tracecable back to the printer. The EFF believes printer manufacturers agreed in secret with governments to provide this tracking.
v8mx TIL that Dan Castellaneta sang ’S-M-R-T’ by accident in Homer Simpsons’ “I am so smart” song. The writers kept it in because they found it so much funnier and like something Homer would actually do.
BrLNr TIL that a Detroit school was so understaffed that an 8th grader taught math to his own classmates and to the 7th grade for an entire month.
EKnX TIL of Max Woosnam, possibly the greatest sportsman of all time. He won gold & silver Olympics medals, a doubles title at Wimbledon, hit a 147 break in snooker, a century at Lords cricket ground and captained Manchester City and England football teams. He also played off a 0 handicap at golf.
YpvAZ TIL that the first battle of WWI consisted of a British ship firing a single shot at a German ship on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in Africa, and taking the captain "prisoner." The two captains had been drinking buddies for years, and weren't about to let the war ruin it.