› added 9 years ago

80

TIL that Daniel Webster tried and failed three times to be elected president. During the same period, he was offered the vice-presidency by both Harrison and Taylor, and declined both offers. Both presidents later died in office, which in either case would have made Webster president.

loYKV TIL the Hawaiian language is unique in that it is the only language with "gendered" nouns not based on male or female. Instead they use one gender for "things you can control" and the other for "things you can't."
QNPpe TIL that Las Vegas is the U.S. city most likely to have people with discolored teeth (ranking 14th for highest percentage of smokers, 6th for tea shops per capita, 10th for coffee shops per capita).
apay TIL A species of snail with a metallic armour of iron has been discovered living on the bases of a hydrothermal vent field in the Indian Ocean. Only living creature to have ax exoskeleton re-enforced with metal. That’s a badass snail right there.
8ylb TIL that creating a Death Star would cost roughly $850,000,000,000,000,000 and that it would take about 833,000 years to build. It would also need a laser of 1,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms worth of matter to have enough energy to destroy a planet for each time it was fired.
XjW6 TIL that “Nigerian Prince” style scams began in the 1980s via postal mail, with letters addressed to women’s husbands asking what to do with multi-million dollar investments hidden in Nigeria. The spread of email lowered the costs and increased the effectiveness of these scams.