› added 4 months ago

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TIL horned lizards have a bizarre but effective defense mechanism—they can squirt streams of blood from the corners of their eyes, aiming it directly at predators like coyotes. This sudden burst of blood contains chemicals that taste foul and can cause nausea or confusion in the attacker.

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oBmQL TIL in medieval France there was a Christian feast day honoring Mary, Joseph, and Jesus' escape to Egypt. The day was called the Feast of the Ass, and included a woman and child riding on a donkey. It was celebrated on January 14.
7rdYZ TIL: The famous WWII Battle of the Bulge was so named because the German western front in Europe had a pronounced bulge (~70 x 50 miles) into Belgium. The Allies attacked the flanks of the bulge and eventually secured victory at a cost of more than 90,000 casualities
KYEr6 TIL the SL-1 was the only reactor accident in U.S. history which resulted in immediate fatalities, killing 3 military operators in 1961, pinning one of them to the ceiling.
P1Xn TIL that during WWII, George de Hevesy dissolved two Nobel Prize medals with aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. After the war, the gold was precipitated out of the acid, and the medals recast.
VBdK8 TIL that in 1913, the New Zealand national rugby team went on a North America tour to face various university teams. They played 16 matches and won all of them, scoring 610 combined points and conceding just 6