› added 13 years ago

218

TIL that Helen Keller was a radical socialist and the FBI monitored her because of it

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BrX4k TIL in 1975 Ingo Bethke escaped from East Germany by floating on an air mattress across the Elbe. 8 years later his brother Holger fled East Berlin by firing an arrow with a rope tied to it and zip lining accross. The two then flew their brother Egbert over the wall on a homemade ultralight in 1989.
KODa9 TIL about YInMn Blue, the first non-organic shade of blue discovered in over 200 years. It was discovered partly by accident by Mas Subramanian, who is now looking for a similar non-toxic bright-red pigment.
5R5D TIL that “Spider Goats” are a thing. Since farming spiders for silk isn’t ideal, scientists spliced silk spider genes into goats. This new goat can then produces silk out of its utter with its milk.
woMN6 TIL that the term "canola oil" a contraction of “Canada” and “oil“, was a name coined to avoid the less marketable word for the product, "rapeseed oil"
DZe TIL that the tallest building in all of Wyoming is only 12 stories high. It’s a freshman dorm.