› added 9 years ago

170

TIL When helium is cooled to almost absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible, it becomes a liquid with surprising properties. It can flow against gravity and will start running up and over the lip of a glass container.

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m10lO TIL that one town had enough injuries due to men masturbating with vacuum cleaners that its doctor became an unintentional “expert on vacuum-involved penile injuries.”
8aELb TIL The shrine buildings at Ise, Shinto’s holiest site, are torn down & rebuilt every 20yrs in line with the belief in the impermanence of all things & as a way to pass building techniques across generations. The buildings have existed for ~1300yrs; the 63rd rebuilding occurs in 2033.
9Y8mp TIL in 2012, a man sued PepsiCo arguing that he had found a dead mouse in his Mt. Dew. Thus, PepsiCo had to prove and found that a mouse would "have dissolved into a "jelly-like" substance after 30 days"
xXOD TIL that The emu and red kangaroo are on the Australian coat of arms, because they are unable to move backwards and symbolize the nation moving forward constantly
X0kj TIL Canadian engineers wear an iron (or steel) ring on the pinky of their working/dominant hand as a symbol and reminder of the obligations and ethics associated with their profession.