› added 10 years ago

103

TIL that tap water in Canada is held to a higher health standard than bottled water.

Read more museums.ca

via reddit.com

awxDM TIL that in 2002, a Marvel comics writer based an alternate version of Nick Fury on Samuel L Jackson, using his image without permission. Jackson discovered this and nearly took legal action. Marvel offered to cast him as Fury if the character was ever in a movie. Jackson took the deal.
yZwl TIL that certain bears in Russia have become addicted to sniffing Jet Fuel out of discarded barrels. Going as far as stalking helicopters for the drops of fuel they leave behind.
b6WPa TIL mines around Spruce Pine, North Carolina are the source of the world's purest form of silicon sand. A series of geological processes that occurred 350m years ago caused the silicon to form almost without impurities. It is highly sought after and is probably in the device you are reading this on.
gMokX TIL of a plant known as the "Suicide plant" (also called Gympie-Gympie) which is common in the north-eastern rainforests of Australia. Brief contact with its silica-tipped hairs can penetrate the skin causing extremely painful stinging which has been said to last from months to years
ADYKx TIL pine trees scatter their needles across the forest floor to make it easier for fires to burn all of the other trees - pine is fire resistant so it survives.