› added 12 years ago

103

TIL The United States does not have an official language.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

DQXAe TIL about the Boquila trifoliolata, also called the chameleon vine. It is the only plant known to engage in mimetic polymorphism, it can mimic the leaves of multiple host plants. Once the vines approach a host tree, the leaves begin to change their size, shape, color,... to match the host plant
EEO0 TIL Alfred Nobel invented dynamites. And when he was mistakenly declared dead in 1888, newspapers published obituaries that stated that “the merchant of death is dead.” Ashamed to leave such a legacy, he left the money he made from dynamites to celebrate humanity; thus created the Nobel Prize.
R79QQ TIL: The Clarendon Library in Oxford has a clock that has been powered by the same batteries since 1840. To date its bells have rung over 10 Billion times.
GYg87 TIL that SETI scientists believed that the chances for finding intelligent extraterrestrial life were far greater than initially expected, since Earth developed two intelligent species - humans, and dolphins.
epOY6 TIL Record for worst time in Olympic marathon event is 54 years 8 months 6 days 5 hours 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds, held by Shizo Kanakuri