› added 1 year ago

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TIL every year 481 billion plastic bottles are sold, more than enough to bury the Burj Khalifa!

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9YG8m TIL I learned that catfish can breathe partly through their butts -- and maybe we can too. So can loaches (a type of freshwater fish) and orb-weaving spiders, and apparently also mice, rats, and pigs. (Bonus: So can some turtles.)
YpkQA TIL in 1903, two men and a pit bull made the first documented journey by automobile from San Francisco to New York using only a connection of dirt roads, cow paths, and railroad beds. The journey took 63 days, became a national sensation, and called for a system of long distance roads.
KOWM9 TIL Australia aren't the only nation to go to war with an invasive species. Ecuador fought a war with 200000 goats, using helicopter borne marksmen and insurgent goats.
nWnmY TIL a study on cocaine use challenged the belief that the drug induces weight loss by suppressing appetite. Cocaine users ate way more food than non-users yet this didn't increase their fat mass and they didn't gain weight. Researchers concluded that cocaine reduces the body’s ability to store fat.
E1LXp TIL: About the Great Storm of 1703, a week long cyclone that struck England and took the lives of 10,000 to 30,000.