› added 8 months ago

171

TIL: Hawaii was in Oceania not in North America

Read more education.nationalgeographic.org

via reddit.com

R7bRQ TIL That to combat the theft of trees in public parks around Christmas time, some cities spray their trees with fox urine. It freezes and has no odor outside, but thaws if taken indoors on a would-be Christmas tree, and the smell is "eye-watering"
a8WYA TIL of the Maidenhead Railway Bridge in England. When it was built, its arches were the widest and flattest in the world. Critics feared the bridge was unstable, so the arches' centering was left in place, until it was destroyed in a storm - the arches stayed up, vindicating the design.
Zem4 TIL there is a 5 minute survey that predicts suicide risk in the person polled with a ~66% accuracy for 6 future weeks. It is called the “Hopelessness Scale”… and is exclusively available for around $60 from Pearson, a text book company that hyper-aggressively defends the survey’s copyright.
rRoOd TIL-In Florida it is illegal for any place that sells liquor to participate or permit any contest of dwarf-tossing. If convicted the establishment faces up to a 1000 USD fine and the suspension or revoking of their license. The law was put in place after the sport caught on in some bars down south.
Bd5K TIL that in 1991 Spacewatch discovered an artificial body near earth that is now listed on the NASA Astrophysics data system as a possible alien probe that was observed in the vicinity of our planet. Its orbit will bring it back to earth in 2016.