› added 4 months ago

21

TIL that scorpions can hold their breath for up to six days underwater, while dolphins can hold their breath for up to 15 minutes:

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70aP TIL that a cat named Simon served on a Royal Navy ship in 1949, and received a medal for raising morale, killing off a rat infestation and surviving cannon shells during his service. Hundreds attended his funeral when he died from infected wounds.
NvWM TIL Sony has a patent on making viewers yell product names out loud to end TV ads
wo5BW TIL that in order to grow vanilla, humans have to hand pollinate every vanilla orchid by delicately pressing the stamen and stigma together
VMe5k TIL For the Ancient Greeks, the word Barbarian (Bárbaros) originally meant anyone who didn't speak Greek. They would imitate other languages using onomatopoeia "bar bar bar." Even Romans were considered to be barbarians by Ancient Greek standards.
p8kyb TIL 90% of the Earth's gravity reaches the ISS, and the reason the crew float in the spacecraft is due to "microgravity". In a vacuum like outer space, objects of any weight, fall at the same speed. Since astronauts and the spacecraft are falling together (around Earth), they appear to be floating.