› added 5 years ago

112

TIL that Charles Darwin once found two ground beetles and grabbed one in each hand before seeing a "sacred" crucifix beetle (Panagaeus cruxmajor). Afraid to lose it, he put one of the beetles he had between his teeth to grab the crucifix but the beetle spit acid down his throat and he lost them all.

Read more mentalfloss.com

via reddit.com

1mmX TIL the California Roll was invented in Vancouver, Canada. The rice on the outside of the roll was because Vancouverites didn’t want to eat seaweed.
R7L1j TIL That the extra layer of skin over the eye of 90% Asiatic people is called the "epicanthic fold" and is theorized to have evolved as a protection against cold and snow blindness.
wrAP TIL that on a 1983 episode of Three’s Company, John Ritter’s scrotum falls out of his shorts. Viewer complained in 2001 and it was edited out. Ritter’s quote on this: “I’ve requested that they air both versions, edited and unedited, because sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you don’t.”
b9mXj TIL A statistician spent years writing a science fiction novel to teach university statistics. Even though he didn't know anything about writing fiction, he got an illustrator to create graphic novel strips for his story which contained the equivalent of 60 research papers
Dxmj TIL that your employer, even a past employer, can profit from your death by secretly taking out a huge life insurance policy on you without your knowledge. Millions of such policies were okayed by Congress in 2006.