› added 5 years ago

128

TIL the dragon snake's most notable feature is their unusual skin with 3 rows of enlarged, keeled scales running down its back resembling the backs of some crocodilians. When threatened, this non-venomous snake stiffens its body into a straight line. It is native to SE Asia and mainly eat frogs.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

KY9rQ TIL that a year after he accidentally solved two famously unsolved statistical problems by mistaking them for homework, George Dantzig's same two proofs were accepted as his thesis; his 'unsolved problem' story loosely served as the setup for the plot of Good Will Hunting.
W70KL TIL that the "Wright" in the name of today's billion-dollar aviation company Curtiss-Wright is the literally the same business the Wright Brothers started after they achieved the first airplane flight (albeit after a couple of mergers).
YlEd TIL that Indiana Jones has changed the image of archaeology. Before ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (1981), people imagined an archaeologist as a weak, older person who needs rescuing. Now the stereotype is a male Ivy League professor/adventurer with a bullwhip.
M5rK TIL that Stephen King hated the movie adaptation of The Shining. Conversely he thought Stand By Me is the best movie adaptation of any of his books.
XPGk TIL LSD is non-addictive, is not known to cause brain damage, has extremely low toxicity relative to dose, there have been no documented deaths from an overdose, it is physiologically well tolerated and there is no evidence for long-lasting physiological effects on the brain or other organs.