› added 4 years ago

83

TIL Nicolas Flamel was a real guy, not just a Harry Potter character.

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via reddit.com

YpxOA TIL that Columbia is the name of the female personification of the United States and showed up on WW1 patriotic posters much like Uncle Sam posters
ZpKrD TIL on March 1st, 1504, Christopher Columbus convinced the inhabitants of Jamaica to keep provisioning him by threatening to take away the moon.
epwen TIL that consumption of the Australian aquatic fern called Nardoo can cause you to starve if improperly prepared. The plant contains vast quantities of an enzyme that obliterates thiamine (vitamin B1), making your body unable to unlock energy from food, even if eating a full nutritious diet.
8an5P TIL in 1783, an Icelandic volcano (Laki) erupted over 8-months spewing poisonous sulfur dioxide across the Northern Hemisphere. It lead to some of the worst winters on record with mass crop failures, famine, disease and is said to have been the trigger for the French Revolution.
DQBRJ TIL A 2006 study found doctors handwriting to be just as illegible as other professions. Additionally men's handwriting was twice as illegible as women's (40% illegible vs. 20% illegible).