› added 3 years ago

107

TIL the Death Camas plant is so toxic that there is only one known pollinator. The plant is visited by a specialist mining bee, which can tolerate its toxins - others are fatally poisoned. One plant species name is Toxicoscordion venenosum var. venenosum ≈ toxic bulb poisonous poisonous.

4kAn6 TIL that the N1, the rocket developed for the Soviet moon landing program, had a missile variant designed to deliver 17 multi-megaton nuclear warheads, essentially destroying the entire United States in a single launch
KxlG TIL of The Thing - a listening device in a carving of the Great Seal of the United States. A gift from the USSR to the US, it hung in the embassy for 7 years. It contained no electronics and would activate when a radio signal of the correct frequency was transmitted to it.
GYpyE TIL in 1929 the Empire State Building added a 222-foot “dirigible mooring mast”, where parked airships could offload passengers to the tip of the tallest building in the world.
oA97 TIL that because of a lucky genetic mutation happened in the 18th century, today 38 people in a small town in northern Italy don’t suffer from cholesterol artery-clogging, making them virtually immune to heart disease and strokes. They all smoke, they eat like hell, and they don’t care
e0mAb TIL that the concept of a soulmate was originally put forth by Plato. According to his story humans originally had 4 arms, 4 legs and 2 faces. The gods feared humans were too powerful and so Zeus split them in two, condemning them to spend their lives searching for the other half of their soul.