› added 10 years ago

169

TIL in 1945 a group of Russian school children presented a US Ambassador with a carved US Seal as a gesture of friendship. It hung in his office for 7 years before discovering it contained a listening device.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

Wlv9 TIL The number of people donating their bodies to science has doubled in the last ten years because funeral costs are so high and most schools will cremate the donated body when they are done and return it to the family at no cost.
W7MLA TIL because of the low humidity due to high elevation in Denver, the Colorado Rockies baseball team started using a humidor to store baseballs in 2002, after which they found that home runs and other stats became more in line with the rest of the league
wLnL1 TIL Narcissistic personality disorder and bipolar disorders share many traits in common, such as: setting high, unattainable, goals; and being very impulsive. This makes diagnosis difficult, since what looks like one of the disorders in a person might actually be the other.
OZP4 TIL A 2013 IMF study found that worldwide subsidies for fossil fuels totaled $1.9 trillion, while worldwide subsidies for renewable energy was $88 billion. Meaning for every $1 in subsidies renewable energy got, the fossil fuel industry received $21.50 in subsidies.
v1N1r TIL when creeping dogwood flowers open, their stamens snap upwards at 24,000 m/s^2 (nearly 54,000 mph), which flings the pollen at an acceleration of up to 3,000 G's - one of the fastest plant actions on Earth.