› added 7 years ago

97

TIL that James Bond was named after an ornithologist whose field guides Ian Fleming, a prolific birdwatcher, read while on vacation.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

R5pb7 TIL that some orb weaver spiders stitch a zipper pattern in their webs so birds and larger creatures don’t pass through and wreck them.
6ENB7 TIL scientists attached stilts to the legs of ants to prove that they return to their nests by counting their steps. The ants with stilts overshot their nest by roughly 50% due to the new length of their steps.
9YvvG TIL Pennsylvania’s Seal has a reverse side, which depicts Liberty holding a wand topped by a liberty cap. In her right hand is a drawn sword. She is “trampling upon tyrrany, represented by a lion.” The entire design is encircled by the legend "Both Can't Survive.”
Q8pa TIL the government in Azerbaijan decided to spend close to 1 billion dollars on a song contest instead of giving their citizens clean water.
Z88Gp TIL: In the early days of the People's Republic of China, families of executed prisoners were charged a "Bullet Fee" when claiming their relatives corpse