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TIL a fungus infects ants' central nervous systems. Once it has been in an insect for 9 days, it acquires full control. It forces the ant to climb trees, then convulse and fall into the moist soil. Once there, the fungus waits until solar noon to force the ant to bite a leaf and wait for death.

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xVpdB TIL Mike Tyson once threatened to beat up Michael Jordan while out to dinner with him (and Mike Ditka, Don King, and Richard Dent) because Michael Jordan had briefly dated Mike Tyson's ex-wife years before Tyson even met and married her.
woYe1 TIL that the world's oldest known piece of chewing gum is over 5,700 years old and was made from birch bark tar.
B5yx TIL that until the 17th century most scientists believed that the speed of light was infinite. It was only in 1676 that Ole Rømer and Giovanni Cassini made the first measurement of the velocity of light (just 27% off the real value) by observing the orbits of the moons of Jupiter.
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.
nevVP TIL that the American village of Hyder, Alaska is unique in that it is only accessible by land from Canada, and uses Canadian public utility services, border security, emergency services, telephone area code, and time zone.