› added 10 years ago

92

TIL the first commercially successful typewriter was built by an arms manufacturer and looked like a sewing machine

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VB4dk TIL that John Lennon didn't contribute to "Here Comes the Sun"
Pmle TIL men in Japan receive a full year of paid paternity leave, but only 2.3% of them use it.
ZW4v TIL that carrier pigeons only know how to fly back to their home base. The infrastructure that supported this messaging system required regular deliveries of birds between cities and regular release of the birds so they did not imprint on a new location.
a86mJ TIL some planes have an extra engine that isn't used for propulsion, but instead to power other systems in the aircraft
pYGQO TIL Salvia Divinorum, a plant in the Mint family, produces the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen by mass. The most intense peak is reached in roughly a minute & lasts for 1–5 minutes. Users usually return to a sense of the everyday & familiar, then to baseline, after about 15-20 minutes.