› added 9 years ago

832

TIL pikas (real-life pikachus) are adorable mammals from the mountains of the American West. They can overheat in temperatures as low as 75 degrees F, so they make specialized dens to stay cool even when 900 degree F fires roar just a few feet away.

Read more hcn.org

via reddit.com

YpRxP TIL a woodpecker's head endures 1500 G's (g-force). It distributes most of the energy to it's body, while the head only experiencing 0.3% of the total force which dissipates as heat. They have to take breaks in pecking to cool down the inside of their skull.
M7Gk7 TIL: PBS interviewed a legendary spy power couple who took turns as the CIA's Chief of Disguise. They invented many works now at the International Spy Museum including "Jack in the Box" a pop up dummy, disguises in painter's case, hidden cameras, and underwear that makes you appear pregnant.
4XLlX TIL in 1995 Newsweek published an article berating the internet and calling visions about its future "baloney". It predicted that "no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works."
oZa7 TIL that despite later becoming an icon of the south, the confederate flag was never the national flag of the Confederate States of America
Oj47 TIL there is an organisation called the Unrepresented United Nations (UUN) that represent Unrepresented Nations and Peoples, so “that they may express their position in the appropriate forums and obtain recognition, since they cannot in the United Nations.”