› added 7 years ago

179

TIL about the Grafton castaways, a real-life Gilligan's Island. Shipwrecked for 18 months in the Auckland islands in 1864, the 5 men lived in a thatched hut complete with glass windows and bookshelves. They built a forge to work metal, tanned leather, made soap from seashells, and even brewed beer.

yQnPX TIL that psilocybin, the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms, is found only in the mushroom’s cap and stem and not in its spores. Since most drug laws prohibit psilocybin rather than the mushroom itself, this loophole makes the sale and possession of the spores legal in many countries.
ADeRn TIL a man was struck with an axe 16 times, but still went about his morning routine after regaining consciousness, despite heavy bleeding and severe brain damage. The part of his brain that handled reasoning was damaged, but the part that controlled habits was intact.
m06P TIL that a dark mane on male lions is a sign of robustness and virility. Meaning Scar was way more attractive than Mufasa to the lady lions.
x6Veg TIL author H.G. Wells married his cousin in 1891. The couple later separated when H.G. Wells fell in love with one of his students, Amy Catherine Robbins. This entire period was the most productive in H.G. Wells' whole writing career producing The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, among others.
Z85vB TIL that whenever we look at the night sky we are looking at our past , most of the stars we see are not really there ,they are long gone but because of the distance the light takes a long time to travel that it still shows its past state.