› added 7 years ago

1254

TIL that there is evidence that humans as recently as the Greeks could not see the color blue and described “blue” things like the ocean as “wine-dark” as written in the Odyssey.

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PY79J TIL Mr. Sketch scented markers have an Ice Cream line that includes "Stinky Cheese" as the scent for Blue
78Rk7 TIL the full name of Zaire's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was "Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga", which translates to "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake."
X0P TIL that the estimated costs for the 2012 political campaigns (6 or 7 billion) is almost 3 times the cost of sending the Rover Curiosity to Mars (2.5 billion)
XN9P TIL the biggest cashew tree in the world covers an area of about 80,000 square feet and produces over 60,000 fruits each year. The tree gets its size from two genetic issues, which allow branches to grow outwards instead of upwards, taking new roots when touching the ground.
OGLW6 TIL Komodo dragons can have so-called virgin births. As well as mating with males the species is parthenogenetic: in other words, the females can lay fertile eggs without any input from males. This will only reproduce identical young, however. For the species to continue to adapt, it needs to mate.