› added 2 months ago

54

TIL water isnt wet. Most scientists define wetness as a liquid’s ability to maintain contact with a solid surface, meaning that water itself is not wet.

Read more sciencefocus.com

via reddit.com

165mW TIL that Europeans starting using the term “Aztec” to refer to the people who lived around the city of Tenochtitlan, but that’s not what they called themselves. They referred to themselves as the Mexica.
RRyw TIL that someone created a mathematical world (similar to Wonderland from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) called the Garden of Cosmic Speculation. It’s only open to the public one day a year.
j6JLv TIL in the 1920s, Coco Chanel accidentally got a tan, and helped inspire the trend of sunbathing. Soon "sunlight therapy" was prescribed for almost every ailment from fatigue to tuberculosis. Before this, tanned skin was associated with the lower classes who work outside, and fair skin was revered.
dyP9 TIL that the first group of people to fly the Jolly Rodgers (Flags that indicate a Pirates Ship) was the Knights Templar, who first flew the black flags in the 13th century.
KgPQ TIL in 2004 a man was found naked and beaten behind a Burger King. With dissociative amnesia, and despite multiple attempts including DNA, scientists have yet to determine the identity of this man who calls himself Benjaman Kyle.