› added 8 months ago

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TIL that shrews are not rodents despite being mouse like in appearance and size and some are venomous.

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GYK9J TIL that in WWI, the Ottoman Empire lost almost 14% of its population.
Bg6GW TIL that the only mosquito in Iceland is preserved in Institute of Natural History. It was caught in the 1980s by University of Iceland biologist Gilsi Mar Gislason in the cabin of an Icelander airplane
b6oe4 TIL about the USS Constellation, a sloop-of-war that was the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. The ship was built at the Gosport Shipyard between 1853 and 1855 and was named for the earlier frigate of the same name that had been broken up in 1853.
bK1E TIL that Mozart disliked performer Adriana Ferrarese del Bene, who was know for nodding her head down on low notes and raising her head on high notes, so much, that he wrote a song for her to perform that had lots of jumps from low to high just so he could see her head “bob like a chicken” onstage.
wENE TIL In Victorian times bottles were used to collect tears with a special stopper that allowed the tears to evaporate. When the tears were gone the mourning period was over.