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TIL: Seagulls are an endangered species with fewer than 100,000 in NZ

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via reddit.com

8a1yK TIL The Wizard of OZ was an allegory for progressivism—The cowardly lion represents politicians bowing to big business, and the tin man and scarecrow are workers and farmers. Dorthy is America, erroneously following the yellow brick road (gold standard) but saved by her silver slippers (in the book)
E1g67 Telling someone to go jump off a cliff may sound like an insult, but to an adventure photographer like Krystle Wright it’s just another day at the office. In this week’s Today I Learned, Wright shares some of the insight she’s gained while photographing BASE jumpers. Did you know that "BASE" is actually an acronym for the four different objects a BASE jumper can plunge from?
rRVl0 TIL that FIVE movies sold more than an estimated 135 million tickets in North American; Titanic 135.5 million ; E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 141.8 million ; The Sound of Music 142.5 million ; Star Wars (Episode IV) 178.1 million and Gone with the Wind 202.3 million (the full list is in the link)
NXBG8 TIL about the Melanesian “cargo cults” - an indigenous group who superstitiously recreated Allied / Japanese military equipment, clothes, and routines in the hopes that it would bring back more of the resources they saw delivered to bases on nearby islands during WWII.
dDXPj TIL in the 1800s the USDA gave farmers an herbicide to combat ragwort, a weed toxic to horses and cows. They'd spray sodium chlorate but get some on their pants. The dried sodium chlorate was high highly flammable leading to an epidemic of EXPLODING PANTS.