› added 8 years ago

119

TIL of Bombardier beetles who shoot boiling chemicals at predators by having internal explosions from mixing 2 chemicals.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

5YZJ8 TIL of the Asian corn borer, a species of moth that can mimic the echolocation sounds of a bat (their natural predator) and is used to paralyze females during courtship. Normally ineffective at copulating, when the male makes this sound - the female freezes in fear (thus making reproduction easier).
0DDR TIL that after his crimes were discovered, serial killer Marcel Petiot grew a beard and joined the police using the alias Captain Valeri. “Valeri” was assigned to find Petiot until someone recognized him, months later.
R59W7 TIL there is a polar bear jail in northern Manitoba, Canada where polar bears are kept isolated until they can be relocated for the safety of the residents of the town of Churchill.
WkDRo TIL that Bob Ezrin, the producer of Pink Floyd's The Wall album, was banned from coming to the "Wall tour" shows by Roger Waters — he was angry that Ezrin had leaked the concept of the show to a journalist friend (unintendingly acc. to Ezrin). Ezrin bought his own ticket and went anyway.
bV74 TIL “SOS” does not actually stand for anything; “save our souls” or “save our ships” are just simply misinterpreted backronyms. SOS was simply chosen for its convenient communication.