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TIL sheep shearing is not animal cruelty. If sheep are not sheared they can experience a lot of health problems. There was a sheep in Australia that was found unsheared for six years, five time the wool of normal sheep, with damaged hooves and skin infections from urine trapped under his wool.

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Y7pRW TIL in ancient China pillows were made out of different materials such as jade, wood, or bamboo. A jade pillow was thought to make one smarter. Hard pillows were also preferred because of this belief. People then also thought soft pillows stole their energy while they were asleep.
4ll5 TIL that in 1910, Congress nearly passed “the American Hippo Bill”, which would have released hippos in Louisiana bayous in order to eat invasive plants while solving America’s meat shortage. Newspapers of the time praised hippo meat as “lake cow bacon”.
Y77mx TIL "Cityspeak", the pidgin street language incorporating Japanese/Spanish/German/etc.. used in Blade Runner & Blade Runner 2049 wasn't in Philip K. Dick's book, but was actually devised by "Gaff" actor Edward James Olmos while researching his character for the film.
P1EyO TIL Ancient DNA shows that the culture that brought Bronze Age technology to Britain was connected to a migration that almost completely replaced the island's earlier inhabitants, the latter who were the Neolithic communities responsible for huge megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge.
XjLj TIL the Led Zeppelin song “Gallows Pole” is a version of a centuries-old folk song. Traditionally the main character bribes the executioner to let them go. In the Zeppelin version the executioner takes the money but carries through with the execution.