› added 5 days ago

TIL that bombardier beetles defend themselves by creating a chemical reaction inside their bodies that heats a spray to near boiling and explosively shoots it at predators.

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e1nL TIL jeans originally had that extra pocket “as a protective sleeve for cowboys’ pocket watches.”
dDEjr TIL in earlier space toilets, including the Shuttle, wastewater was vented into space. During its maiden flight, Discovery had a buildup of frozen excrements outside the orbiter, which was then removed by a robotic arm
WkpkN TIL there's a grizzly bear nicknamed "The Boss" who's eaten two black bears, survived being hit by a train, weighs 300kg, but has never shown aggression towards humans despite spending a large amount of time near public places.
x9w1 TIL “new car smell” is carcinogenic.
rNEgM TIL in the 1960s, General Electric designed a portable astronaut escape pod made out of a plastic bag called MOOSE ("Man Out Of Space Easiest"). An astronaut would reenter Earth's atmosphere in a giant, foam-filled plastic bag