› added 10 years ago

101

TIL there is a common amoeba found in warm bodies of freshwater, and if insufflated (snorted) deeply into your sinus cavity, will begin to eat your optical nerve, move to your brain and eat that as well. Oh, and it has a fatality rate higher then the Ebola virus and the Bubonic plague.

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ZpR74 TIL that Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire
JYbR8 TIL about the saying "Cup of Joe". The meaning of the saying is a little unclear but it was narrowed down to 2 ideas. The term was either derived from "Cup of Jamoke", which is from Java and Mocha and then was shortened to Joe or it is using Joe as a fellow guy to signify the drink of a common man.
1aVpd TIL in 2012 an extreme solar storm missed Earth by 9 days that could have caused nearly $2.5 trillion dollars in damage and loss of power for years on end. There is a 12% chance of a solar storm with the same magnitude to hit us in the next decade.
m15bp TIL sine and cosine waves are actually a spiral in 3D. The 2D version is just a side view of the spiral.
j6ZZR TIL at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the New York City Ballet was on tour in the USSR and the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in the USA