› added 8 years ago

101

TIL that John Scurlock, the man who invented safety air cushions to catch people jumping out of buildings during a fire, also invented the bouncy castle.

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pYe4b TIL Duke Kahanamoku was not only a 5-time Olympic medalist in swimming, but also a pioneering surfer who is credited with popularizing surfing around the world. Later in life Kahanamoku was elected to serve as the Sheriff of Honolulu, Hawaii from 1932 to 1961.
69A1m TIL Kiwis are the smallest of the flightless bird group, ratites. However, their eggs are the largest relative to body weight of any existing bird. To put this into perspective, the average kiwi weighs just 2500g and an average kiwi egg weighs a massive 371g. This is 15% of a kiwi’s body weight.
OoDk6 TIL that Franklin Dixon, the author of over 200 Hardy Boys books which have sold over 70 million copies worldwide is not a real person but a collective pseudonym for dozens of authors who have written for the series. Canadian author Leslie McFarlane wrote 19 of the first 25 books.
mx8Qo TIL Bed Bugs almost went extinct. Before governments started banning it, DDT insecticide was the best bed bug killer available. It drove their numbers down to near extinction. Over time, populations of Bed Bugs began developing DDT resistance. Even if we started using DDT again, they're now immune.
pY9pQ TIL: Vampire bats can detect heat using a modified version of the receptor that responds to burning or capsaicin (spicy things). They can "see" at ~30 degrees C