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TIL Digesting Duck was an automaton unveiled by Jacques de Vaucanson on 30 May 1764. The duck was made to fake eating and digestion but Vaucanson wished for a real digesting machine. In 2002 Wim Delvoye revealed his "Cloaca Machine" which digested food; the excrement was sold to art collectors.

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XE4g6 TIL in 1982, the CIA successfully tricked the Soviet Union into stealing sabotaged software that oversaw pump valves in gas lines. The CIA used it to close off a massive Soviet gas line, leading to a massive pressure build up and “the most monumental non-nuclear explosion ever seen from space.”
6E7l8 TIL giraffes were thought to be nearly completely silent because their long necks make vocal vibration difficult. However, researchers spent 8 years recording almost 1000 hours of audio at three zoos and discovered that giraffes produce a deep, spooky humming noise, almost like tantric chanting.
MlYB TIL Kindergartners in Siberia run outside in their underwears and dump freezing water over themselves to strengthen their immune systems.
VnMm TIL that in ‘Tropic Thunder,’ Robert Downey Jr.’s character says “I don’t drop character 'til I’ve done the DVD commentary.” When doing the actual DVD commentary, RDJ does it in the characters Lincoln Osiris and Kirk Lazarus.
P1NlE TIL Harry Truman seriously considered running for a third consecutive presidential term in 1952. He was exempt from the 22nd amendment limiting every president to two terms because of a grandfather clause. However, a dismal loss in the New Hampshire primary convinced him not to.