› added 9 years ago

71

TIL that we get a runny nose when we cry because we get actual tears in the nose via the nasolacrimal duct.

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jNLBa TIL the reason a clock is used as a metaphor for how close we are to extinction in the Doomsday Clock is that a clock implies a countdown and suggests that destruction will naturally occur unless someone takes action to stop it.
8aZX TIL Dead ants give off a scent to signal other ants that they need to be carried away. The dead are brought to a designated graveyard in order to avoid bacteria spreading.
8aRML TIL of Nellie Bly, a 19th century female journalist who went around the world in 72 days, pretended to be insane in order to expose the deplorable conditions in mental asylums, patented two designs for steel cans and ran a million-dollar iron manufacturing business, all before the age of 40.
v1xnL TIL "Big Pool" in Garden City, Kansas, built in 1922, is the world's largest outdoor concrete municipal swimming pool. It holds over two million gallons of water and is so large people can water ski on it.
woyn6 TIL the Canadian Government once approved a plan to extract oil from the Alberta oilsands using nukes, and the project only died because public opinion on nuclear devices soured after the Cuban Missile Crisis.