› added 2 years ago

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TIL about William Chandler pilot flying for South Africa Airways for more than 20 years on a fake license.

Read more bbc.com

via reddit.com

xVpo0 TIL that male garter snakes secrete male and female pheromones, causing many males to attempt mating with each other. The advantage is that the male snake derives needed warmth after hibernation by being the center of a “mating ball” of amorous snakes.
4XbWo TIL Televangelist Pat Robertson, net worth $100M, predicted in 1976 that the world would end in November of 1982. After that didn't happen, he tried again a decade later—in his 1990 book The New Millennium, he said the world would be destroyed on April 29, 2007. The world did not end on that date.
PYN4E TIL that clowns play an important role in traditional Hopi religious festivals, representing man in his original uncivilized state. By acting outrageously they serve as an example of how not to behave. They also use satire and humor to criticize individuals who have violated community norms.
7Vl7 TIL A group of German scientists studying a wild tobacco plant noticed that when the plant was being eaten by caterpillars, the plant would release a scent that would attract predatory bugs who would then eat the caterpillars
8vv4 TIL King Harald of Norway vowed to remain unmarried for life unless he could marry his true love, the daughter of a cloth merchant. She became the Queen of Norway.