› added 2 months ago

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TIL Australian lyrebirds have incredibly complex vocal mimicry, copying other birds, non-avian animals like koalas, and even artificial sounds like chainsaws, car alarms, and camera shutters.

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QJQyX TIL cars made in the 1950s often had a loud and resonant 'country horn', and a quieter, polite 'city horn'
oR8bW TIL that the first human DNA sequenced took 13 years (Human Genome Project 1990-2003). This year, the Guinness World Record bestowed the title for fastest DNA sequencing of less than 4 hours to a team from Roche Sequencing Solutions, Broad Clinical Labs and Boston Children’s Hospital.
leZG TIL that speaking Kurdish in public was illegal in Turkey in the 90s
p444 TIL A man born with spina bifida, inexplicably walked for the first time after scuba diving.
x6Pg TIL that Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin lost chess games to an 18th century wooden robot with a chessmaster hiding inside.