› added 2 years ago

76

TIL of byssus fabric, or "sea silk" because it was made from the filaments of Mediterranean molluscs, gathered by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, who wove them into clothes that "when treated with lemon juice, turn a golden colour, which never fades."

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grXnW TIL that journal Nature once published a review of conspiracy theory that the resurrection of Jesus was staged by Pontius Pilate
MEKW TIL Google will pay you $1Million if you can hack its web browser
VBdPk TIL That following the Messinian salinity crisis, during which the Mediterranean almost completely dried up for 630,000 years, 5.33 Ma ago the Zanclean flood happened: water broke through the Gibraltar Strait, filling the Mediterranean within months at 100,000,000 m³/s – 1,000x flow of the Amazon!
Obrg TIL that in 1346 during the siege of Kafa, Mongol forces used plague victims as biological weapons, by flinging the infected corpses over castle walls with catapults. It worked.
6JeJ TIL that, to stop the theft of trees in public parks near Christmas time, some cities spray would-be Christmas trees with fox urine. It freezes and is odorless outdoors, but would be unbearable and irremovable if taken into someone’s home.