› added 10 years ago

173

TIL that the Sanskrit word for war literally means “a desire for more cows”

Read more wisegeek.com

via reddit.com

vPj0x TIL Simply calmly treading the water in a rip tide can return you to shore in 3 minutes, because rip currents are really whirlpools, according to an oceanography professor's study that sensors to analyze the flow of wave water. (Source: nps.edu, 2010)
DK8D TIL three 16-year-old girls were able to cut germination time in half and increase dry-mass crop yields 74% by introducing nitrogen-fixing bacteria to non-leguminous crops like oats and barley. The experiment won them the 2014 Google Science Fair.
1bWO TIL that WinCo, a grocery store in the western U.S. not only undercuts Walmart on prices, but is employee owned, offers health benefits, and a pension plan for their employees.
VP5G TIL that people used to send Vinegar Valentines to those that they despised. These were essentially insult cards with a picture and an insulting poem that were given on Valentine’s Day.
aKjb TIL that in 1988, Iran began a country-wide purge of political prisoners. People were beaten for missing daily prayers. One woman died after 22 days and 550 lashes, and the authorities certified her death as suicide because it was ‘she who had made the decision not to pray’.