› added 9 years ago

100

TIL “Smarties” (U.S.) were first made after WWI using repurposed gunpowder pellet machines, which gave them their shape and texture.

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16vWO TIL that in 250 million years all continents on our planet will converge and form a new supercontinent, Pangea Ultima. This may also lead to a climate tipping point and Earth becoming uninhabitable for mammals.
VMwMQ TIL that Gregor Mendel, the founder of modern genetics, may have falsified data in his famous pea experiment in order to better correspond with his expectations.
yVLQJ TIL that in 1979, Elf, a French oil compagny, lost over $150 million in a scam. Alain de Villegas, a Belgian Count, had led ELF officials to believe that a company had created a machine capable of detecting oil fields from the air. The scandal is known as the "Avions Renifleurs" ("Sniffer Planes").
VlZG TIL Japanese knotweed is listed by the World Conservation Union as one of the world’s worst invasive species. It damages concrete foundations, buildings, flood defences, roads and architectural sites. In 2010, the UK released into the wild a Japanese insect that feeds on Japanese knotweed.
jNboM TIL an extra on the set of Star Trek IV ad-libbed a line that made it into the final movie. Since she wasn't an actor, she then had to be registered to the Screen Actors Guild since membership was required for anyone with speaking lines in a movie.