› added 4 months ago

29

TIL Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula" in the 1890s. Although many link the novel to Vlad the Impaler, Stoker’s notes don’t mention him. Instead, he found the name "Dracula" in a library, mistakenly believing it meant "devil" in Romanian.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

BrmkL TIL Ke-alelo-O-Pilikua is a lava formation near the mouth of Lumaha'i River in Kauai, Hawaii and means “tongue of Pilikua." Pilikua comes from the name of a giant who was known for his booming voice. Legend says the people who heard him repeatedly became so irritated with him that they killed him
XEMxj TIL Chinese has so many characters that even China’s standard dictionary once forgot to include 30 already used in its preface
1LP TIL that as recently as 2000 years ago Madagascar was home to gorilla-sized lemurs … humans encountered them and they quickly died out [middle of first paragraph]
P19rg TIL the Supreme Court established "the reindeer rule" determining that sufficient secular elements can counterbalance religious components in a public display, meaning that municipalities include reindeer in addition to religious holiday displays to avoid violating the First Amendment.
N7d81 TIL about “pee paint,” a special paint that repels pee back on the pee-er. Cities use it in an attempt to reduce public urination on walls.