Post * P1O5E — Curious Curator

› added 1 year ago

42

TIL about penitentes, spikes of snow that typically form in high-altitude areas. They can get as tall as 20 feet in the right conditions and are known to be very hard to break.

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nWmQB TIL of US Secret Service special agent Jerry Parr, who helped save the life of Ronald Reagan after an assassination attempt. As a boy, Parr saw Reagan portray a Secret Service agent in 1939's "Code of the Secret Service" and was inspired to become an agent himself.

YpEoP TIL the seeds of the Abrus precatorius plant contain the toxin abrin. Abrin is fatal at just 1/75 the dose of ricin. Abrin has an LD50 of 0.56 μg/kg in mice, and Kingsbury lists a toxic dose in humans at 0.00015% body weight, or approximately 0.1 mg for a 150 lb human. One chewed seed can be fatal.

Q1ZE TIL unvaccinated children in Victoria, Australia are prohibited from enrolling in childcare.

4XK1w TIL The vast majority of the worlds party glitter is bought by a an unknown cooperation for completely unknown purposes. When a NYT investigated, she was completely stonewalled and was only told that she would never guess it and would not know it was glitter if she saw it in use.

VBmaZ TIL "Dukes of Hazzard" were destroying '68-'70 Dodge Chargers at such a rate that planes had to be used for aerial search for replacement cars among the populace.