› added 4 years ago

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TIL the lowland streaked tenrec is the only mammal to use stridulation, more commonly associated with insects and snakes, for generating sound.

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VBB4D TIL: Japanese women are expected to give chocolates to male colleagues on Valentine’s Day as part of a tradition called giri choco – literally, obligation chocolates. Men are supposed to reciprocate on 14 March on White Day – an event dreamed up by chocolate makers in the early 80s to boost sales.
BrlD TIL the first man made aircraft to land on another planet and send back data was the Soviet Venera 7 in 1970. After successfully landing on Venus, the craft sent back only 23 minutes of weak data, presumably because it landed on its side.
9Y9Nm TIL of the Yaghan, the people inhabiting the southernmost tip of the world. Despite extreme cold, they used to wear no clothing and instead lit many fires. This caused passing European ships to call their land the "land of fires".
bPO4 TIL Alexander Graham Bell developed the metal detector as a last ditch effort to locate a bullet lodged in the chest of American President James Garfield in 1881; the attempt was unsuccessful because the metal coil spring bed Garfield was lying on confused the detector.
X04KR TIL that Jacks in playing cards used to be called Knaves, but they switched to the slang, low-class term "Jack" because it was easier to abbreviate (K was already used for Kings)