› added 5 years ago

337

TIL that four times more people speak English as a second language (roughly two billion) than as a native one (approximately 350 million).

Read more newyorker.com

via reddit.com

v17xR TIL Toads have a robotic prey system, will recognize a moving horizontal line as prey and try to eat it but not a moving vertical line
OGnXR TIL Dolly Parton wrote a song that won't be released until 2045.
xV6xo TIL the caduceus symbol mistakenly used by many American medical companies is actually associated with thievery and commerce, the true medical symbol is the similar looking Rod of Asclepius.
xdmg TIL the Age of Empires game for the Nintendo DS could be bricked/destroyed completely if the name of the save file was less than 4 characters long. The developers later had to print a slip into future cartridges warning players since the glitch could not be repaired, only worked around.
69eQX TIL that to get the pear or apple into a bottle of brandy, they place the empty bottles over the budding fruit at the start of the season, and allow it to grow into the bottle all summer.