› added 8 years ago

91

TIL Australia have the kangaroo & emu on their coat of arms because both animals can not walk backwards. Thus presenting themselves as a forward moving nation.

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grKND TIL that even if King Charles III had an older sister, he still would have been first in line to the throne; male-preference primogeniture wasn't changed to absolute primogeniture until the 2011 Perth Agreement.
BgQxr TIL that although it was once a common practice, among Europe's current kings, queens and heirs apparent, only Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein married a member of a foreign dynasty, as did the abdicated Juan Carlos I of Spain.
VMQV8 TIL Joshua Bell, one of the best concert violinist in the world played for free, for 45 minutes, on a violin worth 3.5 million dollars at a subway station. Over a thousand people passed by Bell, only seven stopped to listen him play, including a 3-year old boy, and only one person recognized him.
1Rmd TIL that bacteria called actinomycetes cause ‘the smell of rain.’
DQwaJ TIL modern tests for high value old paintings search for carbon 14 isotopes, none of which existed in the world before the trinity nuclear tests of the 40’s. Any paintings containing this isotope are clearly from after the tests and thus, a forgery.