› added 8 years ago

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TIL potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, chili peppers, petunias, and tobacco are all closely related, in the family of plants named after extremely poisonous nightshade, also closely related.

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VMQbD TIL the original "laugh track" used in sitcoms was a physical instrument like an organ, was held under lock and key, and was owned and operated by only one man who knew how it worked. Charley Douglass used his "laff box" to create the laugh track for almost every sitcom in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
jNwZj TIL Japanese, but not European, honeybees can “slow cook” giant hornets to death, when they attack the hive. They do this by forming a giant swarm, a “bee ball”, around the hornet and vibrate their flight muscles to create heat. They warm the area up to 116°F, slowly “cooking” the hornet to death.
ANGmx TIL Apple has a mysterious zero click exploit affecting most of their products that went largely unreported on
0d5E1 TIL that a cloud weighs about one million tons — it floats because air is even lighter.
8a5MP Today I learned that ceiling fans can make you feel cooler OR warmer, depending on which direction the blades are spinning.