› added 2 months ago

10

TIL about the coco de mer tree, where the male tree has flowers that look like human male genitals and the seed has "the shape and size of a woman's disembodied buttocks on one side, and a woman's belly and thighs on the other side."

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via reddit.com

LkywP TIL that a billionaire hedge fund manager once paid Kenny Rogers $4 Million to sing The Gambler over and over a dozen times at his birthday party.
98DM TIL that the flashes of color you see in your eye after you rub them are called phosphenes.
XB5k TIL that the concept/ticketing of jaywalking in the U.S. was started by a propaganda campaign by the automotive industry in the 1920s.
4kLNb TIL that the last remnants of feudalism ended in 2006 when the island of Sark in the English Channel voted for democracy. Beforehand they were the last feudal fiefdom in Europe and were ruled by a Seigneur and the descendants of 40 farming families who helped colonise the island.
0d4pp TIL the University of Western Ontario has a wind tunnel big enough to hold a two-story house. The Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes is used to test the effects of hurricane-strength wind and windborne debris on structures. Weather aficionados call it the "Three Little Pigs Project."