› added 5 years ago

124

TIL that there is a fungal genus "Phallus" consisting entirely of penis-shaped mushrooms, commonly known as "stinkhorns."

ejW5 TIL that “muskeg”, very damp soil, is why northern Ontario is almost uninhabited. Sometimes 100 feet deep or more, unless completely cleared it freezes and buckles construction in winter, and swallows anything left (locomotives, construction equipment, moose, etc.) when it thaws in the spring.
P1EZg TIL Edmund Kemper helped a nonprofit called Volunteers of Vacaville in reading/recording books for blind people to listen to. He logged over 5000 hours between 1977-1987 but stopped in 2015 after a stroke.
5Yvlp TIL that according to the US Census Bureau, Maryland, Delaware, and even Washington DC are considered "the South," even though they're historically and universally considered "North" in terms of politics, geography, and culture.
6EK0Z TIL in 2006 when the Japanese government announced that ear cleaning would no longer be considered a medical procedure, thus making medical licenses unnecessary for ear cleaners, a new type of business sprung up in Tokyo and other big cities: ear-cleaning parlors, which now number in the hundreds.
kOlBE TIL The few species of insects that can recognize faces share one trait: communal societies with multiple queens. In communal groups with a single queen, the roles are clear. But paper wasps may have 5 or more queens in one nest and facial recognition helps these queens negotiate with one another.