› added 9 years ago

194

TIL the city of New York will pay for a one-way plane ticket for any homeless person if they have a guaranteed place to stay

Read more nytimes.com

via ift.tt

Rja6 TIL For 200 years tomatoes were considered poisonous in Europe - in reality their acidity was dissolving poisonous metals from plates
awBa9 TIL Obsidian Blades are so sharp that they can cut cells and DNA. They are used are used in modern medicine because the sharp blades create incisions which heal faster.
dbEE TIL Lodges made by Beavers have two chambers. The floor of the first chamber is a few inches above the water level and is used to dry off after coming out of the water. The floor of the second chamber is above the first, and is used for sleeping and caring for kits (baby beavers).
5gyB TIL Ray Bradbury wrote a short story where a time traveling safari hunter accidentally crushes a butterfly under his boot in the Cretaceous period, thereby changing the course of history millions of years later. He wrote the story two decades before the term “Butterfly Effect” first came into use.
D1Zvr TIL that there is a man called José Salvador Alvarenga who holds the Guinness World Record for longest time being lost at sea. He was lost for 438 days in a boat that was about 7 meters long and almost one meter wide. He survived by eating raw fish, turtles and birds and by drinking rain water.