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TIL that the Oʻahu ʻakialoa bird - a species of Hawaiian honey creeper- went extinct because of a strain of bird flu that was passed by mosquitoes.

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WkdW4 TIL that capsaicin, the element that gives peppers their spiciness, doesn't affect birds.
v199D TIL that for much of the 19th Century, former Confederate states considered Thanksgiving an act of "Northern Aggression". Before the Civil War Governor Wise of Virginia dismissed the holiday as "theatrical national claptrap."
6Bx8 TIL in 1992 29,000 “bath toys” fell off a container ship near the coast of Alaska. Since then the yellow duckies have been washing up in places such as Scotland, Japan, Maine and the Arctic.
gMv8 TIL there is a sea slug that can eat algae and gain the ability to photosynthesize, so it never has to find food again for the rest of its life cycle.
AZWg TIL in the 1980s, the BBC televised a live demonstration of email. Prior to transmission, a studio guest overheard a crew member saying the email account password and phoned a friendly hacker. Once on air, the presenter logged in – and was met with a poem about hacking and insecure passwords.