› added 9 years ago

63

TIL that most bamboo species flower only once every several decades, but when they do, all of the bamboo from the same group flower at the same time, regardless of where they are planted.

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jEWR TIL that Europeans traditionally swam the breaststroke, while Native Americans swam the front crawl. When two Native Americans won an 1844 swimming competition in England, newspapers criticized their barbaric, “un-European” form. Europeans refused to use the faster front crawl for decades.
0wWyp TIL Silicon Valley began in Palo Alto because the inventor of the transistor wanted his new company to be closer to his sick mother's house
X75k TIL John F Kennedy ordered 1,200 Cuban cigars hours before he authorized a U.S. trade embargo which subsequently made them illegal
8aMOb TIL that California has the worst road conditions in the country with San Francisco, LA, and San Jose coming in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
b6Y94 TIL Tekken has the longest running video game storyline without major reboots or retcons