› added 6 months ago

31

TIL that Helium is the only element that is not a metal with the -ium suffix and it’s because Helium was named before -ium was used to indicate metals.

Read more pubs.acs.org

via reddit.com

lo9gr TIL Angus McDonagh designed and printed his own fake postage stamps, with images of himself wearing an eye patch, a beret and a Father Christmas beard. He successfully used them to post over 100 letters.
loZLV TIL the "Austrian Association of Hiking, Sports and Society" was a CIA-funded paramiltary group created to engage in guerilla warfare in case of a Soviet invasion in Austria
DQdnP TIL the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corporation holds the record for the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster (MV Dona Paz in 1987 - 4385 dead) before having four more of its ships capsize and total at least 1461 more deaths with hundreds more missing. The shipping line still operates today.
e9w6 TIL France has become the first nation in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food, forcing them instead to donate it to charities and food banks.
rNp50 TIL that during 9/11 James Cameron was in a submarine making a documentary about the Titanic. He only learned about the attack hours later when he surfaced.