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TIL birds cannot detect capsaicin (the active ingredient in chilli that makes it spicy) so it is used as a squirrel deterrent for birdfeeders.

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kOPN1 TIL that two French inventors who had never heard of each other before presented nearly identical techniques for producing color photographs on the same day in 1869 to the French Society for Photography.
mRVp TIL some owls keep blind snakes in their nests as helpful associates, reducing the abundance of nest parasites
MYEB TIL that the word ‘plastic’ in 'plastic surgery’ is in no way a reference to the petroleum based engineered material, but actually denotes 'sculpting or reshaping’, from the Greek derived word 'πλαστική’ (plastikē), “the art of modelling” of malleable flesh.
ap5y TIL that a serial killer with the highest known victim count since 1900 will be released from jail in about 9 years.
DGoD TIL that zoos save feathers that come off many of their birds and have them distributed to Native American tribes for their religious ceremonies.