› added 5 years ago

417

TIL that the Chinese civil service has existed in some form for well over 2000 years starting in the Qin dynasty

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5VWn TIL one of the earliest pioneers in parachuting was a woman named Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse, who jumped out of a perfectly good hydrogen balloon in 1799 and descended to safety 900 meters below.
9Y9yQ TIL penguins can drink saltwater because of glands near their eyes that remove salt from their bloodstream and then they can sneeze out the extra salt.
4M9g TIL Coco Chanel was an anti-semite and stole the firm Chanel Perfumes from the Jewish owners while they were being slaughtered by the Nazis.
pYnZA TIL that Wheaties and other iron-fortified cereals will stick to magnets
1alO7 TIL A scientist embedded LEDs in a prop prosthetic arm to demonstrate an electric eel attack. Each flash in the video represents the firing of the nerves in a potential predator. In each of the volleys at 600 volts, there are 200 pulses per second, a very good rate for causing pain.