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TIL that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker has been believed to be extinct since the early 1900's. In 1932, however, in an attempt to refute these claims, a Louisiana state legislator and an attorney shot and killed one of the last of the birds and brought the remains to their local wildlife office.

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via reddit.com

MeRxV TIL that Director Spike Lee publicly criticized Clint Eastwood for lack of African-American performers in "Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese POV of the war)," in which Eastwood retaliated, that the US military refused to let most "colored" servicemen on the front line.
kDwd TIL Albert Einstein believed in “Spinoza’s God”, who “reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”
AD0kd TIL that at the age of 17, Richard Dean Anderson biked 5,641 miles from Minnesota to Alaska.
kJ9EW TIL about Prions, an infectious agent that isn't alive so it can't be killed, but can hijack your brain and kill you nonetheless. Humans get infected by eating raw brains from infected animals.
bYxN TIL that the Looney Toons Golden Collection DVD’s have a disclaimer explaining racial stereotypes in some cartoon shorts, airing them unedited “because to do otherwise would be the same as to claim these prejudices never existed”.