› added 8 years ago

366

TIL there is a battery powered bell at Oxford University that has been continuously ringing for over 175 years. No one knows what the battery is composed of and no one wants to take the device apart in order to figure it out.

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

1a1Vr TIL that the founder of Guinness World Records was assassinated by the IRA after offering £50,000 for information on several bombing suspects.
P1YBG TIL that Delaware has no commercial airline service to or from the state.
e0Xp4 TIL that one of the most famous portraits in history, Girl With a Pearl Earring, is not a portrait at all. Portraits are of specific people. 'Pearl Earring' is a 'tronie', a painting intentionally designed not to look like anyone at all.
QJ8RM TIL in an experiment conducted on pet and shelter cats, the majority of cats preferred human interaction with strangers over food and toys
bJy0 TIL that installing blue streetlights resulted in a 9% decrease in crime in Nara, Japan. It also put an end to suicides at Keihin Railway’s Gumyoji Station after the railway installed blue lights on the ends of platforms.