› added 2 years ago

85

TIL there is a population of 100+ wild Hippos in Colombia, first introduced by druglord Pablo Escobar for his private zoo

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

xVl8g Today I learned of Guugu Yimithirr, an Aboriginal language without words for egocentric/relative directions like "left and right." Rather its speakers are trained to keep track of pure cardinal directions. for example, saying "North leg" when referring to the left leg of an eastward facing person.
KOn0R TIL that the "Elephant's Foot" in Chernobyl was found to be impervious to a drill, but was able to be damaged by an AK-47 using armor-piercing rounds
5YVkp TIL: The term "Patient Zero" was a misunderstanding. It referred to a Canadian man named Gaëtan Dugas, who was linked to the AIDS epidemic in the '70s. He was a flight attendant that scientists dubbed "Patient O, the outside-of-California case". The O was later misinterpreted as the number 0.
DQPxD TIL certain frogs, such as the Cape rain frog, don't have a tadpole stage and instead hatch from eggs directly into froglets.
Wk0j4 TIL that in the 90s, the US was first to develop an assay to test for HIV contaminated blood products. France refused to adopt the test because it wasn't French and delayed testing until their version came out, resulting in thousands of hemophiliacs being infected with HIV.