› added 9 years ago

95

TIL that Lightning bolts prefer to take the path that an aircraft or rocket previously took.

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BgOZr TIL that US law allows coins worth as little as one mill (1/10th of a cent) to be minted. Half-cent coins were minted until the 1850s, and some states issued mill tokens through the 1960s printed on tin, aluminum, plastic or paper.
0dRgR TIL that the Platypus appears to locate prey through a combination of electroreceptors (which sense electric fields) and mechanoreceptors (which sense pressure changes) located in their bill - they even close their eyes, ears, and nose while hunting.
8arOX TIL Some flying insects have an organs called halteres that function like vibrating structure gyroscopes
R5aEj TIL that Teddy Roosevelt rode into battle during the 1898 U.S. invasion of Cuba carrying a book titled "Anglo-Saxon Superiority"
Wk1dL TIL the reason coffee and tea were originally served on saucers was so you could pour the hot drink into the saucer, thus cooling it faster, and drink from it. This practice was used as a metaphor by G. Washington to T. Jefferson for why the US has a Senate.