› added 11 years ago

75

TIL most bamboo species only flower once every several decades, the entire population flowering at once; and, when one variety flowers, the entire variety flowers at the same time the world over, regardless of location, climate, or any other known factors, for reasons scientists have yet to discern.

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XEpEP TIL in Prague there's a street so narrow it has traffic lights for pedestrians. Once a German tourist got stuck and had to be soaped up in order to slide out.
6p7W TIL Hydrogen bombs usually do not contain hydrogen because it is difficult to store. They instead use lithium that is split into hydrogen by an atomic bomb. It worked so well that the first bomb went off with 3 times the expected yield, set the world record, and still holds the US record for yield.
apay TIL A species of snail with a metallic armour of iron has been discovered living on the bases of a hydrothermal vent field in the Indian Ocean. Only living creature to have ax exoskeleton re-enforced with metal. That’s a badass snail right there.
VB7MG TIL that the, what appear to be, love letters between Marcus Aurelius and his tutor Fronto are the only love letters (homoerotic or not) to survive from antiquity.
GYbl5 TIL in 2020 the Marshall Islands, a country with about 60,000 inhabitants, had 3,683 ship registrations. This was due to MI's status as a flag of convenience - a country with advantageous conditions for registering ships there instead of the owner's country.