› added 9 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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8rN8 TIL the average recorded age at death for the slaves of the ancient Rome was extraordinarily low: seventeen and a half years (17.2 for males, 17.9 for females)
R5MQQ TIL of John Coffey a fireman, who deserted the Titanic at his hometown of Queenstown Ireland, the last stop before it headed across the Atlantic to New York.
RRjj TIL “…Charlie Brown is not bald. Though Charlie Brown is drawn with only a small curl of hair at the front of his head, and a little in the back, Charles M. Schulz has explained that he saw Charlie Brown as having hair that was light and cut short, so that it could not be seen very easily.”
wywM TIL Canada has specifically banned members of the Westboro Baptist Church from entering the country.
XEMK6 TIL in WWI, the Germans disguised one of their ships as the British ship, the RMS Carmania and sent the disguised ship to ambush the British ones. Unluckily, the first ship it encountered was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sank them