› added 6 months ago

33

Today I learned there's an island off Madagascar called Nosy Be, the chief city being Hell-Ville

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

OGoQ4 TIL that collecting orchids was so popular among the Victorians that it had a name - "orchidelirium." Orchids would often die after collection due to lack of knowledge about their cultivation. The craze reduced after international trade in wild orchids was banned in 1973.
1a5E8 TIL that India is home to Malabar giant squirrels- three-foot-long, multi-colored squirrels that range from black, brown and orange to maroon and purple.
8ae48 TIL the Japanese sportswear company ASICS is an acronym of the latin phrase "anima sana in corpore sano", which translates to "a healthy soul in a healthy body"
XEyVP TIL that the Black Spartans of Dahomey were one of history’s most fearsome warrior class. However, unlike the Samurai of Japan, the Knights of Europe, or the Immortals of Persia, this was an all woman Army.
b97GZ TIL a riddle from 1688 goes. "If a man born blind can feel the differences between shapes such as spheres and cubes, could he, if given the ability, distinguish those objects by sight alone?" In 2003 the riddle was solved when five people had their sight restored though surgery. They could not.