› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the fleshy protuberance on the forehead of turkeys is called a snood. While fighting, commercial turkeys often peck at the snood. This often leads to further injuries and sometimes cannibalism. To prevent this, some farmers cut off the snood, a process known as desnooding.

jW9p TIL Universal Studios, Inc sued Sony and its distributors in 1976, alleging that because Sony was manufacturing a device (Betamax) that could be used for copyright infringement, they were thus liable for any infringement committed by its purchasers. Essentially trying to kill videotape recording.
yrQe TIL: There is a tree in Africa that is called “Bloodwood trees” because its sap is blood red.
Oon56 TIL in 2006, Judge Garland Ellis Burrell Jr. ordered that items from Ted Kaczynski's cabin be sold at a "reasonably advertised Internet auction." Bomb-making materials, such as diagrams for bombs, were excluded. Raising $232,000 for his victims.
QJRld TIL there was a pandemic in the early 20th century that caused life-long stupor and Parkinsonism in survivors, with many sleeping during the day and waking at night. It resulted in the deaths of millions of people worldwide. Called "Sleeping Sickness", the causative agent has never been found.
eGkD TIL Europeans feared eating tomatoes for 200 years, because when wealthy Europeans using pewter plates, high in lead content, ate tomatoes off the plates, the high acidity in tomatoes would cause the fruit to leach lead from the plate, resulting in many deaths from lead poisoning