› added 6 years ago

143

TIL that helping people in poor neighborhoods plant flowers and spruce up empty lots can reduce crime. One experiment in Flint, MI reduced crime by over 50% in the neighborhood

Read more citylab.com

via reddit.com

p8Lg8 TIL the seeds of the American persimmon, native primarily to the southeastern US, were used as buttons by the Confederate Army during the American civil war for their clothing, and they can also be ground into a coffee substitute. Naturally, the ripened fruit can be eaten fresh or used in baking.
XQZj TIL dogs have “incomplete cheeks,” which allow them to open their mouths wide but, conversely, means they can’t create suction like humans, resulting in scooping water backwards with their tongues.
m1PnE TIL that Communist Romania hated the Dracula story but was becoming dependant on Western tourism. A local functionary in the county of Bistriţa managed to trick the authorities into letting him open two Dracula themed hotels, one based on the inn that Jonathan Harker stays at in the book.
x6600 TIL Leon Lederman, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physics and author of The God Particle, faced overwhelming medical debt near the end of his life and was forced to sell his Nobel Prize to pay it off
rdBd TIL Al “Scarface” Capone got his infamous scars when he told a woman “You got a nice ass” in front of her brother while working at a bar