› added 4 years ago

75

TIL that Silphium was an extremely popular plant was used as both a spice, perfume and medicine in classical antiquity. the high demand resulted in it being harvested to extinction and thus nobody has known its taste or smell for millennia.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

9wpZG TIL rust (corrosion) has an estimated worldwide annual cost of $2.5 trillions, roughly 3.4% of the global GDP
7rO8X TIL: Ben Cohen (one of the 2 founders of Ben & Jerry's) has severe anosmia, a lack of a sense of smell or taste, and so relied on "mouth feel" and texture to provide variety in his diet. This led to the company's trademark chunks being mixed in with their ice cream.
OoLVR Today I learned that the cloudy vapor that appears when liquid nitrogen is exposed to the air is condensed moisture, not the gas itself. The gas actually causing the condensation and freezing is completely invisible.
XEr9R TIL Muammar Qaddafi was obsessed with Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice. During one visit he showed her a video with photos of her with various people, set to a song composed just for her called ‘Black Flower in the White House.’ When his house was raided a scrapbook of her pictures was found.
AD6wd TIL in 1913 Bulgaria went to war against its own allies from the First Balkans War, facing off against a combined strength double its own. Unsurprisingly, it failed.