› added 6 years ago

215

TIL about the American town 'Merrymount', founded 1624. Named from slang at the time for 'illicit' forms of sex - the town rejected Puritan values welcoming non-Heterosexuals, freeing indentured servants and intermarrying Native Americans. Five years later it was invaded and razed to the ground.

4kdra TIL Jellyfish are capable of learning from experience. While scientists previously assumed jellyfish were incapable of adaptive learning because the animals lack a central nervous system, new research suggests they can learn to navigate through mangrove roots.
X0anX TIL that despite being a NATO member, Iceland has not had a standing army since 1869. They have had a defense agreement with the United States since 1951, though the US has not had soldiers stationed there since 2006, and they have defense agreements with other NATO countries.
W6aN TIL half the nitrogen in your body derives from a synthetic process, invented by two Chemists in 1909. Their discovery is keeping nearly half of Earth’s population alive today.
R7Vjl TIL IN 1991 the inspiration for the world's first webcam came when they installed camera to save people working in the building the disappointment of finding the coffee machine empty after making the trip in Trojan Room in the old Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, England,
EWx0 TIL Corn can only exist if cultivated by humans, and there is evidence to support humans figured this out over 7,000 years ago.