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TIL: Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentile for a 1916 contest to design the company's brand icon.

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R5Zpj TIL bloodletting, the withdrawal of blood to prevent or cure illness. This practice was believed to balance the humors—bodily fluids, including blood, once thought to influence a person’s health. It was common from antiquity until the 19th century, when studies began to reveal its harmful effects.
p8Ym8 Imagine you spent your entire childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood stuck inside a small closet. One day, after much of your life, has passed you by, you realize that you can just open up the door, change into some more appropriate clothes, and hit the town! Free at last, what would you do first? Maybe sing a bit? Go on a few dates? By the way, you have two to four weeks to live. Yikes. This is not unlike the situation most cicadas face, as they spend almost their entire lives underground. For example, many of the cicadas emerging in 2016 have been underground for 17 years! To put that in perspective, the last Star Wars movie these insects saw was literally a menace. Imagine waking up in a world without Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray! Come to think of it, things are really looking up since 1999. A cicada’s ear-piercing call is intended to attract a gal pal. Considering that these little creatures’ time above ground is so fleeting, they need to lock down a date as soon as possible. This could be why most cicadas are louder than the average fraternity pledge. Adult males are the ones making such a racket, and some species can register sounds louder 100 decibels when calling for a potential mate. In this week’s Today I Learned, National Geographic Emerging Explorer and filmmaker Sandesh Kadur explains how cicadas sing such a loud song.
d5PK TIL That one of the main usages of Agent Orange in Vietnam was to destroy crops in friendly territory to force people to move to cities. Agent orange is still legal in warfare, due to a loophole.
NXXwb TIL that in 1893, Oregon Governor Sylvester Pennoyer was asked by the Grover Cleveland Administration to use his resources to protect Chinese Americans. Pennoyer responded to the request via a telegram which simply told the President to mind his business.
mx49p TIL that in Avatar: The Last Airbender, "The Boulder" was voiced by WWE Legend Mick Foley, after they were unable to get The Rock, who the "The Boulder" was based on.