› added 4 years ago

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TIL About the Tarantula Hawk, A Spider Wasp That Preys on Tarantulas

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via reddit.com

kOkwW TIL the Japanese Empire attacked Hong Kong on the same morning as Pearl Harbor, only 4 hours after the attack, which led to the Battle of Hong Kong. After 17 days of fighting, the British Empire surrendered on Christmas, a day which would be later referred to as Black Christmas.
e7nJ TIL that the Candiru Fish (the fish that supposedly swims up your pee stream) can’t actually swim up your pee stream, and can not enter your urethra. The only recorded case is from 1997 and shrouded in a lot of doubt.
mWYR TIL in 1942, sodium fluoride was accidentally added to the scrambled eggs meal at a mental home. At about 1 teaspoon per patient, the sodium fluoride caused violent reactions including vomiting blood and paralysis within 15 minutes, and killed 47 of the 467 patients within one day.
WjDo TIL it’s impossible to smoothly scan your eyes from left to right (or vice versa), except if you’re tracking a moving object. Otherwise, your vision jumps from focus point to focus point, even while reading.
p8BZQ TIL there is a 2,700km long wall running through the Sahara desert. Created in 1987 it is still manned 24/7/365 by thousands of soldiers, supported by radar and surveillance equipment, and it features the longest continuous minefield in the world.