› added 6 months ago

56

Today I learned that cockroaches were used to make medicine and makeup in ancient china

Read more cosmeticsdesign.com

via reddit.com

4k1JX TIL the name "British Isles" is considered controversial today, with replacements including "these islands", "Britain and Ireland" and "Anglo-Celtic Isles"
ADVM7 TIL: Whistling loud with your fingers (while being a skill that a lot of people think is impossible for them to learn due to mouth/tongue-shape), is actually, probably something that practically anybody can learn, with sufficient practice. Important note: time might vary from minutes to hours/days.
x69Pw TIL that the mirrors required for the production of advanced microchips are so flat that if scaled to the size of Germany the highest point will only be a tenth of a millimeter. Because of that the German technologies company "Zeiss" is the only one in the world able to produce these mirrors.
wLdoo TIL that young giraffes can moo. Even though adult giraffes do not often make noise audible to human ears, a baby giraffe may "moo," especially if it is in a stressful situation. The sound is very similar to a young calf calling out to its mother.
Wk6jo TIL the oldest living terrestrial animal, a 186-year old giant tortoise called Jonathan, has been mating with a female giant tortoise called Frederica since 1991...who, it turns out, was actually a male all along.