› added 11 months ago

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TIL that in the summer of 1858, Central London experienced "The Great Stench" due to a heat wave and poor sewer system, leading to a 17-year overhaul of the sewage system.

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P6eJ TIL snake venom contains proteins that change the odor of the wounded animal, allowing snakes to track their bitten prey by odor. This adaptation allowed rattlesnakes to evolve the strike-and-release bite mechanism, which provided a huge benefit by minimizing contact with potentially dangerous prey.
GYEYg TIL of "Penis Fencing", where two hermaphroditic flatworms battle each other with their dagger-like penises to determine which one will stab the other and inject them with their sperm
BgLkK TIL Catholic and Protestant Bibles both include 27 books in the New Testament but Protestant Bibles have only 39 books in the Old Testament while Catholic Bibles have 46. The seven books included in Catholic Bibles are Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch.
XEK4R TIL Rodney Dangerfield suffered a mild heart attack while performing his act on The Tonight Show. While Dangerfield was doing his standup, Jay Leno noticed something was off with Dangerfield’s movements and asked his producer to call the paramedics.
QNG8d TIL Iranian general Fathollah Minbashian was fired by Shah Pahlavi for being too resistant to foreign interests. After the Shah was overthrown, he offered to serve the new Islamic Republic, but they refused and ironically demanded that he report for the crime of collaborating with foreign powers.