› added 6 months ago

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TIL that 600 million years ago, a day on Earth lasted only 21 hours. Earth’s rotation has been slowing ever since, and now the length of a day increases by about 1.8 seconds every century

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9ww8B TIL about kleptoparasitism, an opportunistic feeding strategy where one animal deliberately steals food from another.
0wRZL TIL former NFL player Dave Duerson killed himself, though he chose to shoot himself in the chest, and left a note specifically requesting his brain be used for research into a neurodegenerative disease (CTE) which can be caused by playing football. Researchers did later confirm he had the disease.
epZvE TIL Men at Work's "Down Under" uses the melody of the nursery rhyme "Kookaburra" and the band got sued for it
awe40 TIL Ford uses a robotic butt, called Robutt, to quickly simulate 10 years worth of wear and tear on car seats in just 3 days. It is heated to 36 degrees Celsius (to approximate the human body’s temperature) and can sweat.
LQbg0 TIL that Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met in person only once and that apparently neither man liked the other because they were so alike