› added 11 months ago

64

TIL that bats use echolocation to find food in the dark. They make high-pitched sounds that bounce off objects, helping them figure out where stuff is. It's like their own built-in radar!

Read more dnr.maryland.gov

via reddit.com

jBBN TIL that while the number of Americans who own guns is going down, the number of guns owned is going up. American gun owners comprise 1% of the world’s population, but own as much as one-third of the guns in the world.
jNPZQ TIL almost every species of cactus in the world grows in the Americas, except for the mistletoe cactus which grows in the tropics of Africa. It's unknown why this is the only cactus species outside of the Americas.
VM0bp TIL that museum conservators do not wear white gloves when handling rare books or artwork. The only reason you see it on TV is because they get sick of people complaining that they aren't wearing gloves.
oRKGA TIL that the nomenclature for multiples of a thousand is different in the U.S. vs. the U.K. and the French. For example, a thousand times a thousand is a million in both. Times a thousand again becomes, in the U.S., a billion, whereas in the U.K. it becomes a thousand million, or milliard.
woJ9M TIL pentagrams have been found on Sumerian pottery dating back to 3500 BCE