Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

Duanedoberman t1_j6khsj1 wrote

Reply to comment by funhouse7 in Today I learned the first overseas Consulate of the United States was in Liverpool, established in 1790! by Seahawk124

Embassies are in capital cities, and consulates are outside capital cities.

I stand to be corrected, but I think the consulate in Liverpool was opened before the embassy in London.

Lots of American sailors were coming to Liverpool, and most were illiterate, hence the massive gold Eagle to identify the consulate.

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Ok-Table-3774 t1_j6kfp9i wrote

Reply to TIL When a cow has opposite sex twins, the female twin is usually born intersex and infertile. This happens because the twins blood supplies are linked, which exposes the female to male sex hormones. by awawe

Yea, it's called a Freemartin. This happens a lot of in cows and other ruminants but not so much human due to how the placenta forms and the blood share. I used to work in a genetics lab that offered freemartin testing to cattle breeders to confirm this. A lot of times the females look normal on the outside but when mating is attempted, it either doesn't happen (no internal vagina), or the mating isn't successful (female is infertile). Sadly most freemartin calves are euthanized.

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vthings t1_j6kf800 wrote

Reply to TIL that the first use of the phrase "son-of-a-bitch" in American literature was in the 1823 book "Seventy-Six" by John Neal about the American Revolutionary War. Seventy-Six was criticized at the time for its use of profanity and was noted for its use of colloquialisms. by vrphotosguy55

Never heard of John Neal and reading his wiki entry seems like a pretty awesome guy. Way ahead of his time on many issues. I think I'll give his books a read.

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herbw t1_j6kenmb wrote

Reply to comment by itty53 in TIL redwood trees -- growing to heights of 350 feet or more (over 100 meters) -- have roots that go only about ten feet into the ground. by OccludedFug

yep my heart of hearts. Hope to get there once more before I die. Glacier pt. overlook, max merced river runoff peak. 3 of greatest waterfalls in Western hemisphere thundering down, 1000's tons /sec. water.

I fly around there often in my mind's eye. To the Right Half Dome. Over a bit, nevada falls. Down a bit, Vernal. Up high right, Illilouette. Across the valley, Yosemite thundering down 1600' in two drops. Blow yer away you stand too close. To left, Massive El Capitan vastest Granite formation known. Others.

Tetons, too, Yellowstone maybe, but hell close my eyes, I'm there visual, hearing, smells of pines, sounds of animals. I got a good visual memory.

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takeel88 t1_j6kedjn wrote

Reply to comment by MikiLove in TIL of Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and congressman during the Civil War. The Union deported him for supporting the Confederacy. After the war, he died by accidentally shooting himself during a murder trial while trying to show the murder weapon could have misfired. His client got off as a result by MikiLove

I wonder if you’d have the same opinion was the man trying to suppress the separatists during the American revolution.

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ignominous_igauna t1_j6kdqkt wrote

Reply to comment by Scribblenerd in TIL When a cow has opposite sex twins, the female twin is usually born intersex and infertile. This happens because the twins blood supplies are linked, which exposes the female to male sex hormones. by awawe

That's not what OP is saying though. There is 1 genetically female twin and one genetically male twin. However, the genetically female twin is developmentally intersex by the time it is born

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jwktiger t1_j6kchay wrote

Reply to comment by the-magnificunt in TIL Bats account for 20% of all mammal species worldwide. by karelkarelkarels

Well Rodenta (aka rodents) is the largest family of mammals and its give or take 40% of all known mammal species; but this includes things like beavers.

but you are comparing two values, number of spieces vs number of population.

Genius Homo has 1 species (or at least only one recognized) but has 8ish Billion members Homo Speians (aka Humans). Genius Panthera has 5 species (Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Jaguars, Snow Leopards) but total population less than 200k. Thus one measure (number of species) Panthera is 5x as numerous as Homo. However if you look at population Homo is 40,000-50,000x as numerous as Panthera.

There are a LOT of bat speicies and lot of rodenta speicies but most aren't that populous (at least compared to say humans).

There are a lot of species of beetles much more than the number of ants, however the most ant species are very big in population.

Thus if you were to look at Species the animal world is basically mostly arthropods. But if you look at population its mostly worms.

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