x6GjB TIL older Neocapritermes taracua termite workers carry copper-containing blue crystals in external pouches; during aggressive encounters, their bodies rupture and the crystals mix with salivary secretions to make a toxic droplet
5Vb9B TIL in 17th-century England, people hid “witch bottles” filled with pins, nails, urine, nail clippings, or thorns in hearths and floors as a prepared cure against witchcraft
M7a1b TIL Tetanus and Botulism are caused by bacteria that are in the same genus. Clostridium.
j6lAX TIL SsangYong, the Korean car maker, once sold a luxury sedan, Chairman, with a Mercedes V8, Mercedes automatic gearbox, air suspension, rear entertainment screens and AWD, which Mercedes asked them to redesign it because it looked too much like an S-Class.
0dDX1 TIL that when France initially set the definition of a metre to be 1/10,000,000 the distance from the North Pole to the equator, it sent two surveyors to calculate the distance. But due to an error not discovered until decades later, the resulting metre was actually 0.2 mm too short.
greXA TIl that 1 in 3 japanese men have a closer common paternal ancestor with tibetans, Andamanese natives, Nigerians and philipines than they do with surrounding east Asians. This lineage is called haplogroup DM55 and is the most common male lineage in japan
LQZ5d TIL Graham's Number. An immense finite integer that once held the record as the largest number ever used in a serious mathematical proof.
QN1PX TIL that in 1577 a Chinese Buddhist monk, Hanshan Deqing, decided to copy the entire Avatamsaka Sutra(the longest Buddhist sutra) using his own blood. When the Empress heard of it, she provided him with golden pages to write on. It took him 2 years to write everything.
b6wW0 TIL:that Hungarian nobleman Gregor Baci survived with a spear in his head
ANel7 TIL that anyone can request a U.S. flag to be flown over the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. for a specific date (like a birthday or anniversary) and keep it along with an official certificate.
yVpjv TIL In 2008 a plane carrying Mexico’s minister of the interior crashed in downtown Mexico City killing all 9 people on board and 7 on the ground. The subsequent investigation would reveal that both pilots' certifications to fly the plane were fraudulent.
m1B0O TIL That the company that went on to make Reynolds Wrap was originally founded by the nephew of R.J. Reynolds to produce lead and tin foil wrappers for cigarettes and candy. The company started making aluminum foil a few years later.