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TIL that in the late 1860's, the Phylloxera (insect) destroyed almost all of the French vineyards and that Americans saved it by exporting some vines to be grafted, resulting in a pest-resistant vine, saving the French from a catastrophic loss.

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grvMW TIL According to a study, East Asians are capable of digesting seaweed because their gut bacteria went through repeated “genetic upgrades” that enabled them to digest and absorb seaweed.
vPYLR TIL Kendall Myers and his wife spied on the U.S. for Cuba for 30 years inside the U.S. State Department until they were arrested in their 70s. They never took a penny for their work. They simply didn’t like how the U.S. “treated” Cuba.
XOPr TIL crows will crush an ant and rub it all over themselves like perfume–the formic acid in the ants helps ward off parasites.
6xvY TIL there’s an entire theorem dedicated to why you can’t groom a coconut
567r TIL that legendary gambler Phil Ivey won over $9 million dollars playing baccarat with the help of a woman named Chen Yin Sun. Sun spent hundreds of hours memorizing flaws in the patterns on the back of the playing cards–aberrations along margins of the card backs, no wider than 1/32 of an inch.