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TIL Present-day giant pandas are estimated to have diverged from their closest relatives, all other bears 20 million years ago, based on molecular data

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jNx0X TIL that the fat statue in most Asian restaurants is not Buddha, but Budai, a Chinese folklore diety.
dv09 TIL scorpions are incredibly resilient. Scientists have frozen scorpions overnight, left them in the sun the following day, and when thawed, the arthropod walked away unscathed.
D1Dbr TIL Christopher Columbus had experienced a hurricane or tropical storm in 1495 near Hispaniola, the first known recorded and reported hurricane ever. He later declared that "nothing but the service of God and the extension of the monarchy" would induce him to expose himself to such danger.
yRLV TIL that the longest work of fiction is a Super Smash Bros. fanfiction called “The Subspace Emissary’s Worlds Conquest” that is four million words long, and spans 220 chapters as of now. That is twice as long as the longest novel “Men of Goodwill” by Jules Romain which is 2,070,000 words long.
yQXR8 TIL - Tress are being genetically modified to grow faster and withstand frost in an effort to provide renewable energy.