› added 12 years ago

160

TIL that 17th and 18th century English-speaking pirates probably talked just like any other sailors of the day. Most phrases considered ‘pirate talk’ come from a 1950s Disney movie, Treasure Island.

Read more news.nationalgeographic.com

via reddit.com

14e7 TIL Nazi Germany produced Chlorine Trifluoride for use as a dual purpose incendiary and poison gas in WW2. ClF3 causes almost anything to spontaneously explode on contact, including wood, concrete, sand, gravel, glass, asbestos, water, and of course flesh.
8ajZb TIL, that a decapitated flatworm can regrow not only its head back entirely but also all of its old memories back with it.
n8Eb TIL 400 million years ago, there were giant mushrooms as tall as a tree – 26 feet tall and about 3 feet wide
l7OL5 TIL that cricket was played at the 1900 Paris Olympics. Only Great Britain and France competed, with Britain winning Gold. The French team mainly consisted of British expatriates living in France.
kOPp7 TIL most Japanese schools do not employ janitors. The Japanese education system believes that requiring students to clean the school themselves teaches respect, responsibility, and equality