› added 5 years ago

167

TIL, old books have a particular smell due to lignin being present in the paper. Lignin is related to vanillin, leading them to have a faint vanilla scent.

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

rNB84 TIL that the reason we have blue raspberry flavor is because red dye no. 2 (the one traditionally used for raspberry) was considered harmful. The flavor was popularized by ICEE.
K4na TIL that every part of a dandelion is edible. The leaves and buds can be eaten as greens, the flowers can be made into wine, and the roots can be roasted and ground to make “coffee.”
YXZA TIL Hungry foxes have been known to urinate on hedgehogs to force them to unroll before eating them.
ELRd TIL despite the ongoing Arab Boycott of Israel since 1948, Israel has achieved a higher GDP than all of the participants except for the oil rich Kuwait and Qatar, and the participants stand to lose $30 billion from not trading with Israel by 2020.
WERX TIL there’s an “endless wave” in the Amazon that can be surfed for ten kilometers or more.