› added 6 years ago

51

TIL The dog days of summer are named for the period that Sirius, the dog star, returns to the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere. Many ancient astronomers believed Sirius, the brightest star visible from earth, augmented the Sun’s heat.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

yVy0V TIL that miracle fruit has the ability to make bitter food taste sweet, and make sweet food taste even sweeter by binding miraculin glycoprotein to the tastebuds
wLQM TIL there is an log that has been floating in Crater Lake, Oregon for over 100 years
Yp6Lv TIL that it took Noah Webster a total of 28 years to complete his dictionary
MeYPW TIL Ubisoft was approached with the idea of creating a mode in Assassin's Creed for teachers to explore historical locations in the classroom. This led to Ubisoft creating a "Discovery Tour" mode which shows you real historical facts independent of the game's story and combat mechanics.
bOmE TIL Frank Zappa was approached by a crazed fan with a gun. Zappa persuaded him into walking with him, and numerous others. to a nearby lake. He then persuaded everyone present to start throwing things into the water, including the attacker, who threw in his gun.